The Morning After
by Philosophizes
Summary: Set the day after Brainy leaves. Now that everyone's got a chance to think, they have to answer some questions, and do some soul-searching.  Absolutely inspired by Cleome45's "Bending Like A Willow Tree", the best Legion fanfic I've seen to date.
1. Cosmic Boy

****

Cosmic Boy

* * *

Cos woke up early that morning out of habit. He could have slept for another five hours at least.

He didn't want to get up. He didn't want to face the world. He didn't want to face himself.

The Supermen had left yesterday. Brainiac 5 had snuck out the back way during Kell's swearing-in ceremony.

For once, he wouldn't do his job.

"Attention, Legionnaires," he announced over the HQ's commsystem. "This is an off-duty day. Enjoy yourselves."

* * *

He found he couldn't enjoy himself. There was too much he kept thinking about.

Would anyone still trust them? Could they still do their duty? Was the team going to survive this? How was he going to explain what happened to the galaxy?

Cos resigned himself to the fact that he might as well get up, because no matter how much he didn't want to face the world, he couldn't keep himself from doing it.

There were 247 messages waiting for him when he finally got around to checking. As he looked at the number, willing it to go down, another twenty messages arrived.

Checking the senders and subjects, he saw that most were from planetary governments, demanding an explanation. A few were threatening to ban the Legion from their worlds unless they got rid of Brainiac 5. One was a very official letter from the United Planets Senatorial Court dictating their exacting verdict.

The newest ones were tabloids and newspapers, wanting an interview.

He sighed and started to read through them in earnest, taking notes as he went.

* * *

A few hours later, he reviewed his notes. The tabloids and smaller newspapers just wanted dirt, as usual.

The rest of them wanted the same answer: "What happened with Brainiac 5?".

How was he supposed to answer that? There were shades in that question.

There was the literal, "what happened?".

There was the hidden question of "what was so wrong with him that this could happen?".

For some, the question would be "how could the Legion let this happen?", and the variation "why did you allow this?".

There was "why did he let this happen?".

Cos knew that if he didn't answer all those questions, and even if he did, everyone would draw their own conclusions and the whole thing would be a mess the Legion wouldn't be able to escape.

And it wouldn't just be the heads of state and the journalists, either. It would be every single person in the galaxy.

He ordered the computer to run searches on "Brainiac 5", "Legion", and "crisis". It was time to get the public's opinion.

* * *

The public was divided just as the Legion was. There were more naysayers than there were on the team, but no official word had been put out yet besides the court decision. Most of the people for Brainy seemed to be 'for' based on just that court decision alone. The majority of the galaxy seemed to be on the fence, waiting for more information.

Public relations was stressful.

* * *

If he worded it this way… no. That would leave too much open to interpretation. Interpretation was not what they needed. No matter how he worded his speech to the press, there was something in it that _someone_ would take the wrong way.

He needed to get out.

* * *

Downtown Metropolis was no more relaxing than his quiet apartments. He wasn't very recognizable when he was out of uniform, but everyone was talking about the Legion.

Half of the conversations he overheard walking by were about the catastrophe. Roadside newsstands were hawking quick-download storyfiles on any and all things Brainiac-related.

Even the coffeeshops were abuzz with debate.

He was walking despondently along a side street when a roving vendor caught up with him.

"Buy a storyfile? Latest news on the Legion, Brainiac 5, and what the UP's doing about it!"

"No."

"Mirella Tao elaborates on the life and times of Brainiac 5 in Galaxy Today! Learn of the estranged and tragic love-"

"I _know_ that's rubbish. And Mirella Tao writes for the Daily Galaxy."

"If it's the Daily Galaxy you want, Devlin O'Ryan reports on the intergalactic turmoil caused by this catastrophe-"

"Get lost."

* * *

It had taken forever to shake the vendor. He irately thought that street vending should be considered a minor criminal offense.

It was getting darker out. The holoboards were starting to light up, throwing shadows across the streets as the moving advertisements flickered.

He found himself outside the Daily Planet building. The newsboard outside was streaming the nightly Galactic News Broadcast. It was a special feature, all about the Legion.

"Rokk?" asked a familiar voice.

"Lydda?" he asked, turning.

"You look horrible," she told him.

"I feel horrible."

The dark-eyed young woman put her hands on her hips. "Actually, you look _worse_ than horrible. More like appalling. Or ghastly. What have you been doing?"

"Getting deconstructed into my fundamental bits of information, then reconstructed-"

"I meant besides the obvious."

"- dealing with a team that may be on the brink of internal warfare, and trying to figure out what to say to the _rest_ of the galaxy."

"Don't you ever take a day off?"

"This _is _my day off. I just can't throw the duty off for a day."

Lydda looked at him for a moment, then stepped forward and hugged him tightly.

"You know no one would blame you for taking more time for yourself," she said quietly.

"_I_ would."

She sighed. "So how is figuring out what to say going?"

"No matter how I word it, or what I say, there's always something in it that would cause problems. We have enough problems already."

He stroked her short black hair and closed his eyes. "I want everything to- to-"

"To what?" she asked, just happy he was there.

"I'm not really sure."

She pulled back and held his upper arms. "How about I take your mind off things?"

* * *

The Legion of Substitute Heroes broke out into uproarious laughter.

Rokk almost managed to crack a smile. "Starfinger _really_ did that?"

"_Oh_ yeah!" Fire Lad was talking around his laughter, and managed pretty well. "He absolutely hates our guts in that pompous-attitude way of his. Never occurred to him that molasses is only slow when it's _cold_!

He broke out in side-stitching laughter. "You gotta love the stupid criminals. They don't think _anything_ through all the way."

"Like, what happens if we manage to _escape_ from the 'death trap'? What then?" Infectious Lass snorted.

"Then we turn the tables on them while they're distracted!" Color Kid hooted. He pitched his voice higher. "_How dare you incompetent second-stringers foil my diabolical plot! It was utter perfection in death-trap form!_"

Rokk almost managed to contain his laugh. It burst out, louder than he'd ever heard it.

"_Only a hopelessly bungling bundle of bamboozlers could have possibly ruined the excellence of my execrable machinations of terror!_"

He laughed until he cried. "They… he really… how can…" he took a deep breath. "He practiced that one, didn't he?"

"It is a classic line from the very _depths_ of scum and villainy that I thought of five seconds ago." Color Kid bowed elaborately. "Hold your applause, please."

Cos finished laughing, and turned to Lydda. "I haven't laughed this much in _ages_," he told her breathlessly.

"That's what it sounds like."

"You should get out more; both of you," Porcupine Pete said. "Night Girl spends too much time around here as it is."

"I do have a reputation to keep up," Rokk pointed out.

"Ah, you've got to know when to stop caring about reputation and procedure and when to go with what you need to do right now," Fire Lad said. "Anything to keep you sane."

"What do you say, Rokk? Shall we make plans for a date?" Lydda elbowed him.

"I'd love to, but something would probably crop up. I wouldn't be able to go back on my duty for that, to tell the truth."

He paused. "To tell the truth…"

"I sense a revelation coming on." She smiled at him.

"I need to know when to stop caring about reputation, huh?"

"_Absolutely_." The Subs were adamant on this point.

"Thanks for all this, Lydda." Rokk leaned over and kissed her. "I've figured out what to say now. And how to say it."

She looked fondly at him. "Go shake the world."

* * *

"You called a _press conference_? Since when do you do _that_?"

"Since I got some very good advice."

* * *

Cosmic Boy faced the assembled press corps the next morning. The plaza was abuzz with whispered conversations and the droning of hovercams. He could feel Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad sitting behind him.

He cleared his throat.

The conversations stopped, but the hovercams still droned on.

He began speaking.

* * *

_Transcript from the Daily Galaxy's report on The Legion Press Conference (Rokk Krinn's speech)__:_

_I spent a long time thinking about how to word this speech. I spent most of that time worrying about semantics, and connotations, and how the whole galaxy would take what I said about the Brainiac Situation. I was afraid that people would take it wrong, and that we would get mired in a situation we wouldn't be able to bail ourselves out of. _

_It weighed on my mind so much that I did what many people do when faced with a difficult situation: I tried to forget about it. I took a walk, and met some friends in an unexpected place. We spent a few good hours together, joking and trading advice. I got a flash of insight where I wasn't expecting one. That seems like a common enough occurrence._

_It was some good advice. They told me that I needed to stop worrying about reputation and procedure and get on with what needs to be done._

_I ended up giving myself some good advice, too. _

_To tell the truth._

_So I came back here to Headquarters and talked to some people. Then I announced this press conference. I'm doing this without a script and without prompt cards, because the truth shouldn't be rehearsed. It should be heard._

_A lot of people have contacted me in the last forty-eight hours, all demanding an answer to the same question: What happened with Brainiac 5?_

_I am of the opinion that the question should rightly be: What happened with the Legion?_

_This Situation has its roots farther back than anyone thinks. It depends on where you want to start. You could start at the point that Colu decided that the best way to preserve information was to keep a sort of digital "racial memory" in the back of family's minds pertaining to their ancestors. That's the really long-term view._

_You could start at the point when Superman X first encountered Brainiac 5, and began dropping hints no one got until much later. That's just the regular long-term view._

_You could start at the beginning of our mission to Krypton. That's where everyone actually got it, more or less._

_I'll start there. It makes the most sense._

_Imperiex managed to do enough research and enough faking that he got to the Fortress of Solitude before us. He somehow managed to dig up the information about Kandor being stored there. True to form, Brainiac 5 knew what the team was looking at before anyone had bothered ask what happened._

_Kandor was understandably hesitant about trusting him, and inquiries from the mission team led to an outburst that managed to shock everyone on the mission besides Chameleon Boy. I am led to understand that there was quite a confrontation about the newly-aired facts regarding Brainiac 5's ancestry._

_Imperiex's stated goal was to steal a piece of Kryptonian technology called 'The Messenger', a device that held the planet Krypton together before it was forcefully removed by Brainiac 1. In a series of decisions afterwards, most of the mission team was captured by Imperiex. Another confrontation ensued between Brainiac 5 and the other uncaptured team member over the issue of what to do with The Messenger._

_This second confrontation led to a decision on Brainiac 5's part that was definitely good for Kandor and Krypton, but not nearly so much for him._

_He came to the logical conclusion, which is what usually happens with him. He knew that he had the memories of the original Brainiac, and that by accessing this information he stood a good chance of saving everyone from Imperiex._

_So he accessed those memories, and helped drive out Imperiex and restore the entire planet of Krypton._

_After the mission team returned, there was no concealing the uncomfortable truth about Brainiac 5's ancestry. Most of the team was entirely surprised; but a few members, mostly from non-Seeded worlds, were already aware of this fact. That just made everyone else feel like utter idiots for not making the connection sooner._

_The next sixth months are everyone's fault._

_We all should have noticed Brainiac 5's odd behaviors. They did not become apparent until soon before the Situation; about a week._

_This was also partially his fault. He could have asked for help from us, though clearly there were many and variegated issues on this front._

_The actual Situation began when Brainiac 5 finally admitted to the rest of us what was going on with him. By that time, he was definitively losing the battle against the corruption of his mainframe. That was four days ago. He was locked in his rooms on the cruiser for his and our safety. During that confinement, Imperiex staged an attack on the Legion cruiser. All other available team members deployed to meet the attack. Sometime during the duration of that battle, Brainiac 1 managed to completely subsume Brainiac 5's mind. He escaped confinement and ended the battle through a highly unusual use of force, whereupon he reassured everyone that he was fine._

_For clarification purposes, the use of the term 'Brainiac' from here on out designates the original._

_I had a guard posted on Brainiac 5's rooms. Brainiac overcame them and the other Legionnaires he met on the way to the cruiser's hangar. He seriously injured at least one. He then proceeded to Imperiex's base of operations and murdered Imperiex. Brainiac then set course for Colu. The Legion offered their services to the world, and those services were declined. Brainiac arrived on Colu and overtook the Hivemind, subjugating the entire population of that planet to his will._

_The further acts of conquest and deconstruction have been recorded in detail elsewhere._

_The Legion engaged Brainiac's forces in battle. Only the Supermen, Saturn Girl, Triplicate Girl, and Bouncing Boy were left on the ship._

_Superman refused to believe that Brainiac 5 could be completely destroyed, and advocated Saturn Girl to run a further investigation. Saturn Girl, with permission, took both Superman and Superman X's psyches and shunted them into Brainiac's mainframe._

_Brainiac 5 managed to break free of Brainiac's influence during this psychic battle, and proceeded to completely purge his ancestor from his conscious. The results of this have also been well-documented elsewhere._

_The Legion held an emergency staff meeting after the event to try and reach a decision as to what should be done with Brainiac 5 as it pertains to the team. It was decided, with great compromise on all sides, that the Legion would not force Brainiac 5 to stay or to leave. We received the United Planet's Senatorial Court verdict during that meeting, as well as the provisions that applied to the Legion within that ruling._

_As to the matter of Brainiac 5: we currently have no knowledge of his whereabouts. He did notify certain Legionnaires of his intention to leave, but he himself left without prelude while the rest of us were otherwise occupied; and we were unaware of his absence up until an hour or so later. This occurred two days ago._

_(The questions from the assembled press corps and the answers given by Cosmic Boy are omitted from this transcription.) _


	2. Lightning Lad

**Lightning Lad**

* * *

Garth found himself at loose ends. He hadn't had a day off in months, and most of the rest of the team were off somewhere, doing something. There wasn't much he could do without interrupting someone else.

At least no one could yell at him for not wearing his uniform today.

* * *

He wandered the halls mindlessly, just glancing into the open doorways. He rode the elevator up five floors and down another seven, then got out and used the stairs.

Eventually he ended up in the kitchen. Timber Wolf had been there. The baking pans and mixing bowls were all out lying on the counters and the big wooden table. A bag of flour was plopped precariously close to the edge of the table and a little white pile was accumulating on the floor under it from a leak in the bag. Some of the mixing bowls had drying batter in them. Prepared icing was softening into a mushy puddle near the sink.

It was a sign of the times. Brin never left a kitchen messy after he used it, and _never_ left half-finished projects out.

Garth's subconscious took him halfway through gathering the baking utensils before he realized he was planning on cleaning the whole room without knowing where anything went.

He decided to just leave all the clean stuff out for Brin to put away later.

* * *

The messy kitchen had started something. He had found the general disinfectant under the sink and methodically wiped down all the door scanner-pads in the building, every flat surface in the common area, and all the tables and counters in the mess hall. He had found the dusting spray in a box behind a couch and made sure he got all the corners in the meeting room; then discovered the surface polish and buffed the tables in there.

The window cleaner was stored in the closet he put the polish away in. The process of removing every speck of dirt from the few windows in his quarters reminded him of how long it had been since he'd bothered to do anything about his dirty laundry. The collective clothes hamper was full, so he sorted all the clothes and spent an hour running the washing machines and getting everything ironed. The mop was leaning in a corner of the laundry room.

* * *

Garth was in the middle of cleaning the hall floors when his personal communit buzzed. It had been so long since he'd been called on it that he checked his flight ring first.

He leaned on the mop and fished the unit out.

"Hello?"

"Garth! What _happened _are you _okay _you didn't _call_ and there's been so much _weird stuff_ going on and no one knows what to _think_ and you should have _said_ something to us already I _know_ they haven't said so but Mom and Dad are _freaking out_ and I think they're too scared to call and if Mom knew I was calling you I'd be in _so_ much trouble she's been talking about letting you have your '_space_' or something but I can't _stand_ this any longer-"

"Whoa, whoa!" A huge grin spread across Garth's face. "I've missed you to, Ayla. I know I haven't called, but it's been really crazy here too."

"I think Mom and Dad actually managed to _forget _how much time we used to spend together but I can't _believe_ they did that because they're both twins too!"

"None of us kids have been home for years."

"But they're our _parents_! They shouldn't forget about this sort of thing and you haven't said if you're okay yet and what are you doing you said it's been crazy."

"I'm mopping the floor right now, actually. Just finished the whole team's laundry. Before that it was washing the windows and before _that_ I was polishing the meeting tables and before _that_ I was dusting and before _that_ I was disinfecting and before _that_-"

"_Garth!_"

"-I was cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes."

"I can _hear_ you smiling!"

"I rode the elevator up five stories and down another seven."

"_Garth_-"

"I'm fine, Ayla. Really. Since when did you start not stopping when you talk?"

"Since I got a twin brother who hasn't talked to me in _months_ and I haven't seen in _years_."

"Sorry, sis. Seriously, I'll try to call more."

"S'okay. I know you're busy a lot."

He propped the mop up against the wall and walked into the common area, flopping onto the nearest couch.

"How's school?"

"It's really _weird_, sometimes. I mean everyone knows who you are and who I am and about big brother but no one's figured out why you're older and I'm younger and we're twins yet."

"You haven't told anyone yet?"

"Nope. It's actually kinda fun to see what everyone comes up with."

"You are a horribly crafty little sister, you know that?"

"Nope!"

Garth sighed happily. It was a wonderful feeling, having his twin sister back.

"Are Mom and Dad really worried?"

"Of _course_ they're worried!"

"I mean really worried or _really_ worried?"

"_Really_ worried, and trying too hard to be polite about it."

"I'll write them something."

"Do it quick, okay?" Ayla paused. "Mom's coming, love you Garth!"

"Love you, Ayla."

He went back to the mop. This would be the last cleaning for today.

* * *

Garth was carefully checking his cybernetic arm when his communit buzzed again.

He went for it first this time.

"Ayla?"

"I thought twins were supposed to have some sort of psychic link. I must still be deluded."

"Hey Mekt."

"This is the only call I get this month, and it's not a long one. You okay?"

"Yeah. I've been cleaning."

"You never clean."

"I need something to do. Cos gave everybody the day off."

"Need some time to yourselves, huh?"

"I guess."

There was silence for a minute.

"What are you doing right now?"

"Talking to you."

"Besides that."

"Arm maintenance."

More silence. Garth decided to ask.

"You think he's going to be okay?"

"Who?"

"Brainy. You should know."

"Shouldn't _you_?"

"He bailed yesterday. Nobody knows where he went."

Mekt didn't answer for a moment.

"I guess it depends."

"On what?"

"How bad was he when he left?"

"Pretty bad. He was sneaking around. Lurking, like. I think he was scared."

"Doesn't surprise me."

"What?"

"That he was scared. He was staying in a building with, what, twenty-five people whose _job_ is to arrest the people who do crime of the same sort he was just involved in. He also lived with those people and pretty much killed them. I would be worried if he _had_ stayed."

"You think he's better off wherever he is?"

"I think he's better off not being at Legion HQ. I've run into the guy enough to know he's smart enough to keep himself out of most trouble, otherwise."

"But he's wandering around traumatized!"

"_You_ managed well enough."

There was another silence.

"So did you."

There was a snort from the other end of the communit. "Please, Garth. I know I messed up."

"I did too."

"Not really. It was my fault. I was always so jealous of the way Mom and Dad never looked sideways at you two, and how everyone was always saying 'that poor Ranzz boy', or 'there's that _single_ again', and then Ayla, and then the LSV with the protection racket, and Imperiex with the tachyon cannon…"

"If you hadn't left the farm, I would never have gotten on those tickets for that starship, Mr. Brande would be dead, and the universe would have been annihilated five times over."

"That doesn't make me feel much better."

The silences were just getting more awkward as the conversation went on.

"I'm not _mad_ at you anymore, you know."

"I know."

Garth sighed.

"What?" Mekt asked.

"It was weird waking up and realizing that I wouldn't run into Brainy today. The Legion isn't the Legion anymore in the same way it wouldn't be if Cos had left."

"Really?"

"The Legion's a family for the people in it. He's everybody's little brother."

"Who could blow you away if he got annoyed."

"Only if you were hurting someone else; and usually _he_ did the annoying. I _hated _seeing him sneaking around. It was like he was expecting us to attack him, but it was just killing everyone-"

Garth realized what he had said, and scrambled for something else to say.

"-_metaphorically_, to think that we couldn't stop what happened to him."

More silence.

"He'll come back, you know." Mekt said unexpectedly. "He's too much of a hero to stay away."

"I can think of some people who _really _needed to hear that more than I did."

"You liked it anyway."

"I've got enough experience losing family that I can't take this as well as I want to."

"You always were a family guy, Garth."

"Don't tell anybody, okay?" He was smiling as he said it.

There was a slight commotion on the other end of the communit.

"The warden's kicking me off in a minute if I don't hang up." Mekt said hurriedly. "Be careful, okay?"

"You know I can't. Bye, big bro."

Garth could hear the smile in his brother's voice when he responded.

"Bye, little bro."


	3. Saturn Girl

**Saturn Girl**

Imra was past caring what Cos or anybody said today. She would have taken the day off even if the entirety of Takron-Galtos had escaped.

She was finishing off her breakfast muffin in her rooms. It wasn't something she particularly liked, but she hadn't wanted to stay anywhere where she could be flagged down into 'a talk'.

Everyone always dumped everything emotional in her lap, and she had to sit there and listen and give advice and present a generally unflappable demeanor.

No one could stay that calm forever. The whole galaxy had nearly been destroyed two days ago, the politicians had been playing their mind games, and she had had to put on her reassuring face and play the confidence-boosting matron to Rokk's distant informant and Garth's emotional persuader.

Imra was sick of playing the same game for nearly seven years now. Rokk had his turn, Garth had his, even Bouncy had been leader. She was not going to be shoved to the back again.

The team leader didn't get excluded from missions. They didn't get posted in snug position during a crisis. They didn't get laid up for months. They didn't miss obvious signs of an impending mental breakdown.

People complained about Garth's temper and Rokk's standoffish-ness. As far as she knew, no one had complained about her.

She was capable, she was confident in her abilities, and she could have been a Science Police District Commander by now if Mr. Brande hadn't been on that ship.

She was the strongest telepath in the known universe, no one ever seemed to consider the fact that she could tell what an insect halfway across the galaxy was doing and that walking around off Titan where people didn't shield their surface thoughts was like standing in a starship engine all day, she took special meds each night to keep from getting a migraine, and she needed to vent five days worth of psychically accumulated galactic panic and confusion before she so much as _looked_ at anyone else.

Imra locked her doors.

There would be no disturbances today

There was a door in her bathroom wall directly across from the shower. It led to the only room outside Titanian buildings and specially-constructed cells to have psi-shielding.

It was the only room she could be herself in.

This was the only room where she could drop her control.

There were no fixtures in this room. They would have been destroyed every time she let loose all of her mental power.

The thing with having strong psychic powers meant that some of that energy leaked into the easily-observed physical world.

A maelstrom of mental potency exploded around her. She let all the memories of the pain and the panic and the confusion and the fear leak out and directed them into the right psi-storage units for consulting later.

Unloading other people's memories always made her feel so _light_ afterwards. It was a beautiful feeling.

She settled down cross-legged of the floor. She could almost see her thoughts around her. What with the psi-shielding, specially reinforced walls, storage units, and extra-strength locks, this room had cost Mr. Brande almost as Brainy's lab.

There was a tightening in her chest. It hurt so much to see –and feel- Brainy's self-confidence and self-esteem decimated in such a short time. He was usually so assured and in control that it shook everyone to experience his behavior. Most of the team had been clamoring to help in some way, but that would have just caused more trouble.

Minds were so _delicate_. One prod and a person could be unbalanced for life. Everyone knew it somewhere, deep inside themselves. That's why people were always so jumpy around telepaths, even if it was just subconsciously. She could still tell.

She could never _not_ tell.

She had heard that lesser telepaths could shield their minds from other's surface thoughts. She had heard that lesser telepaths could shield their minds from detection by others. She had heard that lesser telepaths could do any number of things she couldn't just because of the sheer force of her power.

No matter how much she tried, no matter how much others tried, the best reprise from the constant mental clamor had been one experiment eight years ago. Her mentor, Professor Vndaar, managed to keep all his thoughts from her; though she could still pinpoint where he was in the building.

Her second mentor, Dr. Aven, couldn't ever manage that. He had done the psi-shields, though. It was like having a little piece of home.

It was too bad she couldn't carry it around with her.

_We can't let her have too much power, she's a telepath, how will we be able to tell if our thoughts are really ours?_

Imra had never been able to unload those words.

They were just a modification on what the rest of the galaxy had been saying for centuries. Titanian ostracism was second only to Durlan ostracism.

She could feel the mental energies ebbing and cresting with her anger. It was one thing to have a fear of the unknown, but it was something _entirely_ different to have a prejudice against those people without even giving them a chance to _prove_ themselves…

And she was thinking herself into a gloomy mood. Happy thoughts.

Everybody was alive.

The galaxy was more or less functioning normally.

She had a day off.

Leader elections were coming up, and _she_ was going to be in charge this time.

Imra didn't need Dream Girl to tell her that. More than half the team was angry enough at Cos this time around that he wouldn't get reelected, Garth was seemingly uninterested, and no one else showed any interest in the job either.

She would get Dream Girl to be her deputy leader. It really should have been done before. What was the point of having a precog on the team if she was halfway across the galaxy most days? Even better, Nura had had executive training. It came with being the future Head of State of Naltor.

Or maybe she should take Bouncy on as her deputy leader. He had a good run in the top spot during the Suneater Crisis, and after that too.

Nura would be probably be safer. The whole team would be better off with new blood in the positions. And it would keep Rokk and Garth from arguing. Both of them needed to be in charge all the time. Rokk was the worse of the two. And if one was in charge and the other wasn't, then there were arguments. The Legion didn't need any more conflict right now.

The two of them were like brothers, in their own way. If one of them had something, the other did too. A perpetual case of 'if _I_ can't have it, _he_ shouldn't either'.

_Men._

Eventually, she left her private room and unlocked the rest of her doors. It was afternoon now. She could feel small groups of people around Legion HQ, everyone else was out for the day. Even Cos had decided to leave. Good for him.

He needed time away from the Legion just as much as she did.


	4. Phantom Girl

**Phantom Girl**

* * *

Tinya woke up late that day.

The last few days had been too hectic, too adrenaline-fueled for her to get any real rest. Then there was the question nagging in the back of her mind; the one that had yielded only to eventual fatigue.

Was coming back really a good idea?

Plenty of cultures had stories about people coming back from the dead. Bgtzl had its share. But those were _stories_, and in real life people died and they were supposed to _stay_ dead. It just didn't sit right with her.

What made her more worthy of a second chance than everyone else? There were worlds that hadn't been digitized by Brainiac. Every moment that someone on the other side of the galaxy was being deconstructed, there were people dying. And yet, when the time came, _she_ had been restored, and the people on_ those_ planets were still dead.

How was that fair? How was that _just_? She had dedicated the last seven years of her life to supporting equality and rights in the galaxy. How could she keep doing that if her _existence_ contradicted that?

Tinya decided she needed food before she thought any more about this.

* * *

Clean pans and bowls were stacked haphazardly on the counter, but Timber Wolf wasn't in the kitchen like she'd hoped.

She settled for the snacks she pulled out of the pantry.

The communit she always carried with her buzzed. It was her mother. Tinya really didn't feel like talking to her. Her mother would go off on a lecture about how _the Legion was too dangerous for her_ and _why couldn't she have stayed on Weber's World in the President's residence_ and _if she really couldn't stand living there, why couldn't she have gone back to Bgtzl_ and _her brother never caused this much trouble_-

She could go to Bgtzl and see her brother.

Gmya was a natural loner, but even he couldn't stay cooped up in the house all day with no one around. And she hadn't seen him since after Trom.

_And_ he was good with sticky moral questions.

* * *

Tinya went back to her room and shut herself in the closet.

Phasing to Bgtzl involved a bit more effort than just going intangible. Bgtzl was the next dimension up; but she had spent so long living in four dimensions that _five_ took getting used to, even though it was her natural form. She had to phase completely out of this dimension to fill in her fifth dimension form.

She hoped briefly that no one would come looking for her. Even Dawnstar would have a hard time tracking her, and no one would be able to come after her.

The switch to five dimensions was disorienting at first. Her mind kept trying to tell her that what she was seeing were buildings, vehicles, and trees with height, width, and depth, moving through time. The part of her brain that processed images was refusing to see the other dimension.

It was giving her a massive headache.

She got on public transportation and buried her face in her hands, doing the mental exercises that would get her mind working properly again.

By the time her stop came, Tinya's headache was gone.

She walked the rest of her way to her house. The gates rose high above her head, blocking the well-maintained gardens and carefully kept-up drive.

She almost walked right into the bars before she remembered she had no powers here.

The number-lock pad was still on the wall to the left of the gate. Searching her memory, Tinya thought she remembered the correct code.

_26741958_

_-Incorrect Code-_

_25911980_

_-Incorrect Code-_

_19232006_

_-Incorrect Code-_

The alarm system went off. Tinya stood there, mortified, wishing the alarms would stop before someone came to investigate.

She wasn't in the Legion's dimension, but that wouldn't make a police run-in any less awkward.

The alarms shut off and she silently thanked whatever had stopped it. A voice came over the intercom on the number-lock.

"_I don't get many visitors here. Please state your name, purpose of visit, and if you have any idea how long it's been since you visited last."_

"When did you start saying things like that, Gmya?"

"_How would you know?"_

"Look, I know it's been _years_ but I'm here to talk to you now and could you let me in please?"

* * *

Gmya took her into the living room. Tinya took a seat gratefully. She had forgotten how much home meant to her.

It had been strange walking through the house. It had seemed so much bigger the last time she was here. It was still enormous, but it was odd. The house was also so unlived in. Gmya had dismissed all the staff except a cook who came by once a week to make all the meals. He had closed up all the rooms except the kitchen, dining room, his bedroom, a bathroom, and the study. Tinya was still catching herself wondering what was with the closed doors and sheets over everything.

"So," her brother lounged on the couch opposite to her. "Why the sudden visit home?"

"You would not _believe_ the week I've had. We went from having a time-travelling intergalactic despot from the future killed by a time-transcending intergalactic despot from the past who went on to the destroy most of the galaxy."

Gmya's eyes went wide. "Are you _running_?"

"No, no. We fixed it." she paused. "But, _we_ got destroyed, too."

He silently raised his eyebrows.

"The Legionnaires from Seeded worlds didn't know about Brainiac 5's family history. You know how Colu does that family-racial-memory thing? Brainy got the whole programming from Brainiac 1 sitting around in his subconscious. It got free and the original digitized the galaxy. We got sucked up in that."

"And…"

"_We_ were killed, but there were so many _other _people who didn't get that second chance!" she stood and started pacing. "_Why me?_"

Tinya caught sight of her brother. He had his thinking face on. She kept pacing, but waited for him to talk.

* * *

Finally, Gmya spoke.

"It's not fair. It can't be changed that it wasn't fair. No one is going to blame anyone for people dying while others were restored on the other side of the galaxy."

"But-"

"There are no buts. Tinya, this is the sort of thing that makes you a hero."

She stopped pacing.

"What?"

"If you go and ask anyone else in that dimension you spend so much time in, there will be a very small proportion statistically will have thought of this. Most of those people will be in your Legion. You think about how the universe is fair and how it isn't and how to fix it. That's why you do what you do, and why you couldn't stand living around all the politicians and their kids with Mom; or coming back here and living with me. You see problems and you have to do something about them. Your consciousness won't let you do otherwise."

"There's so much I can't _do_, though!" she sat down again. "I can't make people stop fighting, I can't make the universe run fairly, and I can't get everybody who does something wrong in jail!"

"Valor was, according to many people, the most influential peacemaker in the galaxy. There's a whole _religion_ based on his teachings now, with different orders and sects and everything. He lived in the 21st Century. We're in the 31st Century now and intergalactic peace still hasn't happened. It won't happen anytime soon, and quite possibly not ever."

Tinya opened her mouth.

"You're going to ask what the point is, then." Gmya continued, ignoring her. "The point is that you all make a difference and the galaxy looks up to you and _you give them hope_. The Science Police are trusted more places, and no one refuses their help, sure. But when the Dark Circle or the Fatal Five show up, everyone waits for the Legion of Superheroes. No one else inspires people like you do."

She sighed. "That doesn't really help. _I'm_ still here and _they're_ not-"

"Tinya." Gmya interrupted. "You're missing something fundamental here. You didn't die."

"I didn't?"

"No. You were broken down into your constituent bits of information and reassembled. It's the same thing that happens when computers send information between them. You send a message, the computer breaks it down into packets, the packets get sent, the packets get reassembled and the message comes out the other end. Basic computer theory."

"I got sent as a computer message that happened to come out the same end?"

"Pretty much. Now, the theology of this and the nature of a person's spirit and/or soul is an entirely different argument, though no less valid. For our reasons, though, you didn't die."

She gave him a look. "When did you learn about all this? How did you learn all that about the digitization process?"

"I do a lot of reading. Old texts, old languages-"

"Dead languages."

He raised an admonishing finger. "It's not a dead language until no one uses it anymore. Seeing as how Old Coluan is used by the scientific community for description and discussion along with Interlac, it's not dead. Interlac has commonly-used words that are just Old Coluan terms for-"

"Now you're starting to sound like Brainy. He talked like that when we got him started on science stuff, too."

Gmya looked at her apprehensively. "_Talked?_"

"Oh, we didn't tell anyone about that yet, did we? Brainy left yesterday. Everyone's still getting used to it. I think that's why Cos gave everyone a day off."

"Your leader is giving people days off with being asked? Clearly I've missed something."

Tinya smiled at him. "Oh, so you _do_ want to know about things beyond these walls."

Gmya leaned back in his seat. "Talk to me."

* * *

Tinya didn't get back to Legion HQ until late.


	5. Triplicate Girl and Bouncing Boy

**Triplicate Girl and Bouncing Boy**

* * *

Triplicate Girl hadn't gone to sleep that night.

She was too happy.

After living for months as only a part of herself, never quite letting herself hope that she'd ever be whole again, she was completed.

It felt like nothing could go wrong now, no matter how much evidence to the contrary there was.

* * *

Bouncing Boy was waking up.

He felt odd.

The Legion Headquarters felt empty, emptier than it had been even on those few occasions only a skeleton team had been left to hold down the fort.

There was a feeling hanging in the air that everything was waiting to crash down on them.

* * *

Luornu sat on her bed, the three of her separate. Her three heads were bowed, her three pairs of hands holding the others in a circle. There were things to catch up on, and new memories to sort out. Merging again the day before had dumped a whole slew of information and experiences that were hers-and-not-hers until she got them assimilated.

This was the easiest way to do it; keeping herself joined but separate.

* * *

Chuck sat up in bed and wondered at the feeling.

It was more than just emptiness in the building. He had gone to sleep with the strange empty feeling that happened whenever something –_someone_- familiar was suddenly gone. It was still like that now, the next morning.

People left part of themselves wherever they went. Places where they were for a long time kept bigger parts.

The emptiness came when the part was still there but the person wasn't.

Suddenly he realized that there was someone gone, but someone had returned.

* * *

_'You-of-me missed so much.'_

_'I-of-us hope I-of-us never have to see the universe reset itself again.'_

_'Two-of-I missed you-of-us.'_

_'You-of-us must have been lonely.'_

_'It was not easy.'_

_'It was not easy for two-of-us, either.'_

_'You-of-us being here would have made all the weirdness that happened less stressful for two-of-I.'_

Luornu continued murmuring to herself; out loud and between her brains.

* * *

Chuck peeked into Luornu's room and felt a pang of guilt. She was busy. He could hear her talking softly in Cargggite. It looked as if she was praying.

He tried close the door softly.

Her white body opened her eyes.

"Chuck?"

He opened the door all the way this time.

"Sorry, Lu. Did I interrupt something?"

Purple-Lu swung herself off the bed.

"Nope. Just doing some mental spring cleaning."

"The rest will sort itself out," Orange-Lu told him. "Automatic part of Cargggite psychology. The way I was doing it just makes it a bit more… personal."

The Purple-Lu and Orange-Lu remerged. White-Lu walked over to him.

She put her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you." she whispered in his ear.

Chuck couldn't help blushing.

When he managed to look up from his feet, Lu was halfway out the door. He hurried after her; then looked at her questioningly.

The Purple-Orange-Lu smiled at him and answered his unspoken question.

"You do _not_ want to see the mess merging makes of my uniform right now," she told him, holding White-Lu's hand even tighter.

* * *

Chuck had followed her in silence all the way to the medical wing.

No, 'wing' was misleading. There was one big, _extremely_ sanitized room with cots, counters across cabinets, and racks of equipment. A walk-in linen-and-bandage closet was off to one side; right next to the laundry chute.

It looked completely unused. The Legion was usually never actually near, Valor forbid _in_, headquarters whenever someone got seriously hurt. And, frankly, the Legion had a strict cutoff point when it came to medical issues. Lyle could deal with anything up to non-life-threatening communicable disease and a minor bone fracture, Imra and Jan did all the emotional issues, Violet was reliable for minor field aid, most Legionnaires had managed to pick up basic first aid, and Brainy could be counted on for the really _weird_ stuff; but if anybody broke a rib or tore a ligament, it was hospital time.

She shook her head. The Legion could treat someone with their skin half burned off from a mystical energy blast, or newbies falling headfirst a few thousand feet with a quick pull up before impact because they only remembered to think 'fly' in the face of imminent demise; but show them a twisted ankle and they just looked at you blankly. There was a stunning lack of common sense about medical emergencies.

She was going to change that.

* * *

Chuck sat on a cot and watched Orange-and-Purple Luornu go through the cabinets. She would open one, take everything out, put it on the counter, then stick most of it in a trash bag.

"What are you doing?" he asked uncertainly.

"All this medicine is expired. You'd think people would use things like painkillers around here, but _nooo_, they all have to tough it out."

"Star Boy takes pills every morning with breakfast." he said. "I've seen him. I saw Saturn Girl take some meds once. Lyle still mixes up a batch of icky, slimy looking stuff for Condo. I think… Dream Girl…"

"I asked her about that once," White Lu said. She was sorting through the equipment racks on the other side of the room. "She said they were 'for the times when you _don't _want to know about tomorrow'."

"That doesn't sound very… safe…" Chuck said doubtfully.

"It's mostly sugar, concentrated caffeine, adenosine-inhibitors, and some adrenaline; from what the box said." Orange-Purple Lu dropped the trash bag by the door and went to check the bandage closet. "Nura gets really _hyped-up _if she takes more than two or three and then has this huge crash afterwards. If she takes more to keep from crashing, her body just shuts down and Esper Lass trying to melt her brain wouldn't wake her up. She got really quiet after she woke up. There was something about _really vivid_ precognition. No one could really tell what she was saying for a few days."

"Really?"

"Too slurred. It was after that time with Mordru, though. Everyone felt a little disconnected from reality for awhile after that."

There was silence for a time.

"What was the future like?" he asked.

* * *

She had to stop and think for a minute.

"It was a bit weird." she said finally. "The universe sorted itself out again and everyone knew that Imperiex escaping to the 31st Century had been history for forever. If you asked them why he didn't figure this out and completely avoid time travel, they got this glassy look in their eyes and just shrugged. And then as time went on people could remember more and more of what had happened. I only knew that Imperiex had been killed when I ended up back here. I didn't know any of the stuff that happened to Brainy and the rest of you until I remerged. I guess history takes some time to write itself. _And_ no one could remember a time when they didn't know what I remembered them not knowing the day before."

"That _is_ weird. _Creepy_, really."

"Yeah." White-Lu agreed. "You have_ no_ idea."

"So, why are you rooting through the medicines?"

"I'm going to get this up and running."

* * *

Now it was Chuck's turn to stop and think.

"You're going to run the medical wing?"

"Why not?" White-Lu asked. "This is something you can _see_ the results of. People get better when you give them medicine, or set a bone, or perform a surgery. You can see that. Heroing… you can _do_ that, and save _lives_, but you never see _results_. The villains break out of jail again, or new ones show up, or they get away and attack someplace else. If you save a life with medicine, you know it will _stay_ saved. The problem is _fixed_. Anything else is a new problem, and then you can fix _that_."

He was afraid to ask. "Are you going to leave too?"

"What?" Orange-Purple-Lu asked, confused. Then her face cleared. "Oh! No, no. I know a lot of the basics already, and there _are_ three of me. When I prove that I know what I'm doing, I won't have a lot of actual classes to take before I can get a practicing license." She smiled to herself obscurely. "These board committees like on-the-job training and experience."

He smiled back. "It's just that with Brainy and all-"

"I couldn't leave," she said suddenly. "I haven't got anywhere to go. Grandmother- she's dead. Mother and Father don't want anything to do with me."

"No," White-Lu corrected herself. "Mr. Brande would let me stay at his house. He says he's kept a room for me ever since I left."

"Left?" Chuck asked.

"When my Grandmother died, I got sent to an orphanage. I left and Mr. Brande gave me a job. I was his secretary for awhile. I came here when the Legion formed."

"How was it?" he asked.

"Oh, it was a happy little family." Purple-Orange-Lu said. "Me and Reep and Ms. Jai and Mr. Brande and Querl."

"Wait, what?"

* * *

Orange-Purple-Lu sighed quietly and started to explain.

"Ms. Jai is Reep's –Cham's- aunt. Nobody ever said what happened to his mom. I had been there for a few months when Mr. Brande got back from some trip. He brought Brainy –Querl- back with him."

"I thought Brainiac 5 _was_ his name."

She gave him a look. "You remember when he first showed up here? Uptight and rude and unsocial as anything? It was worse then. You couldn't have a conversation with him at _all_. It took a few weeks for me to actually get through to him. I came here just after that."

"They were such cute little kids." White-Lu smiled wistfully, remembering "Both of them; Reep and Querl. I'd babysit, sometimes; when Ms. Jai wanted some time to herself. Querl was just past nine-and-a-half and Reep was six…"

She trailed off.

"You think he'll be alright?" Bouncing Boy's voice brought her out of her reverie. "Out there by himself?"

"He's a survivor, Chuck. We _all_ are. Everybody will get through this."


	6. Nemesis Kid and Sun Boy

**Nemesis Kid and Sun Boy**

* * *

Sun Boy woke up completely in an instant, mind reeling and body shaking. He found he was clutching at the sheets and his pillow was damp. The sheets were singed where he had been gripping them.

He tried to breathe deeply but could only manage a few shuddering gasps. Dirk tried to focus on his terror, but just found it and the nightmare slipping away.

No matter. He knew what it had been about even if he couldn't remember the specifics.

The confines came back.

Dirk couldn't really remember what being digitized was like, but it wasn't a pleasant going in and when you came out, you were left with the knowledge that it had been a small, dark, empty place. There was nothing to remember because you had spent some time as nothing.

One fragment of dream remained. The white beam of light, streaking toward him.

He could have gotten out of the way, but his mind had been frozen remembering the _last_ time he had brilliant light streaking at him.

Dirk got out of bed and paced around his room. He glanced at the time and waited for the day's business to pop up from his ring. He needed something to do to forget the dream.

His ring beeped.

Cosmic Boy had given everyone the day off.

He swung a wild punch at the nearest solid object and cracked his knuckles on the wall. Cursing under his breath, he went to run his hand under some cold water.

How could Cos spring an off day on everyone _now_? They all needed to be out _doing_ something!

_He_ needed to do something. Something active.

To the training room.

* * *

Nemesis Kid ignored the beeping from his ring and finished beating the last hologram into submission.

Whatever the problem was today, _someone else_ could take care of it. _He_ wasn't coming out until he was good and ready.

He selected no when the computer asked if he wanted another simulation; and turned to the stationary, physical targets. He needed something _solid_ to pound.

The door slid open behind him as he threw the first punch. Hart just barely managed to note that it was Sun Boy between his attacks.

The stationary target was rocking slightly whenever he hit it. He focused entirely on the target until he smelled something burning.

Hart steadied the target and turned.

Sun Boy was flaming holograms indiscriminately, not noticing a few spare towels left out were burning.

He ran for the fire extinguisher before the alarms could go off. When he went to replace it, Dirk was looking at him guiltily.

"There's all this _terror_ and… and it's built up inside me and I can feel it in my _blood_…" he held out his arms pleadingly. "I've got to burn it out."

He smiled sardonically at Dirk and strode back to his target. He started assaulting it again. "I know exactly what you mean. I get off Myar and away from all the _backstabbing_,"

Target-shaking punch.

"-and the _sabotage_,"

A kick this time.

"-and the two-faced_ liars_;"

He missed the target on this swing.

"- and I just find _new _ones in the Science Police. Oh, there are less of them, but it just makes them nastier by comparison. Then I come here and I tell myself, _finally, no one here could possibly be like that_. Then I'm not even here a _year_ and it happens _worse _than ever before! And people are trying to convince me to just say, _oh, okay, that's fine, no problem_!"

A particularly vicious hit set the target rocking.

"That's what I _left_ Myar for! Conspiracy is a fact of life there, and I am _tired_ of it. Then here… here…"

All the energy seemed to come out of him at once. He stuck out a hand and stopped the target's motion, then leaned his forehead against it.

"'_If gold rusts, than what will iron do?'_. If we can't trust our heroes, who can we trust?"

"Ourselves, I guess." Sun Boy said; then had a sudden onslaught of conscience. "But you can't even do that sometimes."

* * *

Hart turned his head slightly to look at him questioningly.

"You get to a place where you can't _stand_ something anymore, so you start doing something different. And by the time you realize _you're_ someone different, you can't change back. You wonder what it would be like if you hadn't changed and then get reminded it doesn't it doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters," Hart told him. "You can always try to change back again."

"That's impossible. You can't _un-be_ something, you can just… move past it. Try again, I guess. But you can't change the fact that you were something else before."

* * *

"When did we get to the point where we had to have this discussion?" Hart asked. "Really; when? The Legion shouldn't have ever had anything like this happen."

"It's_ life_. This is the way it works. You think you've got everyone figured out and then suddenly you realize you don't know them at all. Everyone has something to hide." Dirk scowled. "It's just worse here because heroes aren't supposed to be like that. Heroes are supposed to be _good _and open and… and…"

"Pure?"Hart pushed himself away from the target. "I know it sounds strange, but I get the feeling that's where you're going."

"Pure." Dirk agreed. "No…no _darkness_."

He shivered.

Hart noticed. "You having a hard time coping?"

"Nightmares. Really bad ones. And Saturn Girl and Du—_Trips_ have been too caught up with _him_ and themselves to bother with anyone else. There _are_ other people on this team."

* * *

"You want to tell me about it?"

Dirk was surprised by the offer.

"I mean it. I won't tell or laugh or anything else you're worried about."

He shrugged, trying to look more careless than he felt. "I guess."

He sat on the bench where the flamed towels had been. Hart sat next to him.

"Do you know how I got my powers?"

The other Legionnaire shook his head.

"My dad is a nuclear physicist. He doesn't care about me. Somebody he worked with used me to try and get at him. They were working on this project with a nuclear reactor."

Nemesis Kid was starting to look sick.

"The other scientist shut me in the reactor. My dad knew I was at the lab and he didn't even _check_. He _knew_ the safety procedures but he didn't even bother to check about _me_. So he turned the reactor on."

Dirk stayed silent for a minute, wrestling his emotions back under control.

"S-so I'm standing there _in the dark_ and all of a sudden it starts getting _brighter_ and I think maybe he _noticed_ for once but then I realize it's getting _too_ bright and I can hear the _machinery going_ and I've only got enough time to see the white light _rushing toward me and_… _and_… and…"

He stopped. Hart put a hand on his shoulder.

Dirk took a deep breath. "It _hurt_. It was light and I'd always thought and everyone's always said that being surrounded by light is a beautiful feeling. Like Heaven or something. _But it hurt_. It hurt so much that I thought I'd burn up and _die_ but then it stopped and I sat in the dark again for _hours hurting_ and I could _still _hear the machinery running…"

"Your dad?" Hart asked.

"He just went and _analyzed his data_ and the other scientist didn't bother to come and look at me _either_. My dad actually _left without me_ and only realized he hadn't seen me _all day_ and _then_ it took him until he got a phone call from the reactor station about what they thought was a system malfunction. But it was really me_ burning_ my way out of the reactor after I stopped hurting so much. Oh, he took me to the doctor's afterward and they arrested the other guy and the doctors poured over me but _he still didn't care_."

Tears leaked out.

"_I almost died and he still didn't care!_"

* * *

Hart wasn't sure what to do when someone else was crying. So he sat there and tentatively moved his arm around Dirk's shoulders and waited for him to feel better.

It took awhile.

* * *

Dirk sniffed a few times.

"All that with Brainiac… it was the same deal: machinery, light, then darkness and pain. It was just a different order and a different outcome. Same thing. No one came to check afterwards."

"…Do I count?" Hart asked hesitantly.

Sun Boy just smiled widely at him through wet eyes and damp cheeks.

"Do you want to?"


	7. Tyroc and Matter Eater Lad

**Tyroc and Matter-Eater Lad**

* * *

Tyroc was just wandering around. He wasn't _expected _to do anything with his time, not like the more visible members. They would have to sort out this mess, he was just dead weight in things like this. Marzal wasn't a particularly important or influential world, it was backwater without being provincial. It was in a strange grey area between 'cultured' and 'crude'.

So Tyroc was off-duty, and Troy Stewart had nothing to do; and no one to do it _with_.

* * *

Matter-Eater Lad checked his in-house messages, noticed he had the day off, and rolled over in bed. He had nothing to do with whatever the Founders would have to do, despite whatever nonsense Cos was saying about everyone having a 'day off'. Cos wouldn't _let _himself take it off, and someone would have to drag him out of his little mood. Probably it would be Saturn Girl this time around.

Eventually he found he couldn't fall back asleep. And it was too hot under the covers, his back was complaining about having to keep lying down, and _someone_ was pacing back and forth down the hallway.

His stomach growled at him, and he tried to get out of bed. Somehow, halfway through standing up, he managed to tangle himself in the sheets and fall flat on his face. He eyed the floor speculatively. Maybe if he could unhinge his jaw enough, he could take a bite out of it.

* * *

Troy heard the bang from Matter-Eater Lad's room. He pushed the door open and saw the other man looking that floor with a glint in his eye that was familiar to any Legionnaire.

"That probably won't taste very good."

"True, true," M-E Lad conceded. "But I don't think my stomach would mind."

Troy walked over and pulled the blankets off him. The Bismollian shivered once as he got used to the colder air and accepted the other man's offered hand.

"You know if anyone's cooking anything this morning, or am I going to have to scrounge through the trash?"

* * *

The two of them eventually decided to skip the kitchen and live out the day on snacks and sugar-drinks. Late morning found them with the news on in the rec room, setting up for a game of billiards.

"So," M-E Lad said, gesturing to the news. "What do you think of all this?"

"You're the lawyer, Tenzil," Troy said, sighting for his first shot. "You tell me."

Tenzil leaned on his stick. "Well, the courts have already decided about all the legal stuff, which is really what I know, but the politics with this are going to hang around for a_ looong_ time."

Troy hit the Q ball into the bunch of other balls and watched them bounce around. "Bets on who's going to take the longest to cool down?"

The other man set up for his shot. "I would have picked Colu or Krypton, personally, but given the fastball they threw in the Senatorial Court, I've got to pick Thanagar."

A striped ball went in a corner pocket. "You're solids."

Troy looked around for a decent set-up. "The most interesting thing about being on this team sometimes is the politics, you know? We spend at _least_ as much time going after criminals as we do dancing with politicians. 7 in the side pocket."

He sank the shot. "I really don't think we would've been able to pull off _half_ the stuff we've done if we hadn't had the raw political power that we've got."

"I know what you mean," Tenzil told him. "No less than _two_ heirs to state, a member who's _already_ a head of state, the _children_ of a couple heads of state and other influential people, an heir to the biggest galactic money-making machine in the last two centuries, and the overall backing of the guy who currently owns the thing. We must be one of the best-connected organizations in the galaxy."

"Except for the ones who've been informally disinherited," Troy reminded him. "5 in the corner pocket."

This shot missed. "True," Tenzil conceded. "But still. And then there's all the influence we've managed to make ourselves, between diplomatic missions and saving the galaxy at least, what, two or three times now?"

"We might be closer to four," the other man said. "But I don't really keep track. I just try to stay alive."

"Good attitude to have, that. 2 in the corner. But seriously, do you know of any political office that wouldn't throw open its doors for Cos?"

"Colu. Thanagar. Myar. Imsk. Zerox. Zunn-"

"Does Zunn even _have_ any politics?"

"Only the politics of business."

"I guess you're right there. Your shot."

* * *

They both paused to listen to something on the news. "Well, there's a thing," Tenzil said. "Some people don't like the idea of a SciPol Liaison for the Legion any more than _we_ do."

"Who would've thought? And what about Jo's bet? The one on how long it'll be before the liaison arrests him?"

"Oh, if he stays out of sight, he could probably pull off most of a year," the Bismollian said. "It's not like he's really _got_ a criminal record, though. Rimbor isn't terribly discriminating about that sort of thing."

"Rimbor," Troy grimaced. "Another planet that wouldn't welcome the Legion."

"Hey, it's the official hiding place of every criminal everywhere," Tenzil reminded him. "Beats me why we don't just pick up every ship that tries to land there."

"Because some of those are cruisers for politicians of other worlds, and a lot of the rest is cargo for the business conglomerates."

"See, what did I tell you? Official hiding place of every criminal everywhere."

Troy reflected that this negative attitude of his teammate's towards politicians was very typical of Bismoll.

"How did a Bismollian get so interested in politics, anyway?" he asked.

Tenzil smiled widely at him, "What, 'cause Bismollians have the worst attitude toward government institutions anywhere? It's just politicians we can't stand, we're mostly okay with politics in and of itself. It's when people mess with the system we get annoyed."

"So your solution is to make all governmental appointments random, so no one has any opportunity for power plays?"

"Exactly. And hey, it works. Bismoll's got the least corrupt government of everyone except Talok. And that's only because Talok's idea of government is having Shadow Lass in charge of everything."

"You're probably right," Troy agreed. "Tasmia's about the least corruptible person I've ever met. Direct, yes, and a tendency to violence, yes; but never corruptible."

Tenzil sank another shot. "I'm beating you here, Troy. Focus!"

"You haven't answered my question yet."

"I figured, if politicians can get away with so much off-world, why not have a politically-minded lawyer to sort out all the messes they make?"

"And call them out on it, of course."

"Of course."

* * *

"Hey, Troy?" Tenzil asked a little later.

"What?"

"What you said in the meeting, that you hate it when people get exploited… that's because of Marzal, right?"

"Of course it's because of home," Troy growled. "Everything has always been about home. I was the only person protecting people there for the longest time. You remember how much I distrusted the Legion when you first showed up?"

"How could anyone forget?"

"Offworlders have always tried to make quick money off Marzal, but no one had ever really tried to stand up for them before me. And then all of you."

He paused to shoot a ball. It missed.

* * *

Troy started talking again later. "What about the politics within the team? It's already been pretty well laid out by the meeting who stands where, but do you think we'll be able to patch it up?"

"We'd_ better_ be able to patch it up," Tenzil said. "Otherwise where will we be? And where will the _galaxy_ be? We have a duty here, and we'd better make sure we do it."

"No matter how many detractors we get."

"And we've managed to get a lot over the years, and this mess will probably get us more."

"The President must have the easiest job out of all the politicians, you know;" Troy said suddenly. "For all her duties and problems and issues, everyone else can say that the senators and whoever else are playing favorites; but Bgtzl isn't even _in_ this dimension. Nothing that happens here really effects there. Everyone knows she's in the job because she really wants to get things accomplished."

"I wish people could believe that about_ us_," Tenzil grumbled. "Granted, it hasn't happened a lot, but when people start blaming us for things... we _try_, and then beat ourselves up over it later. We have to make _choices_ in this line of work, and sometimes we can't save everybody."

There was a silence.

"I wish we could."

* * *

The game continued. Troy eventually caught up to Tenzil and soon enough they were competing over the Q ball.

"So back to the politics of the situation," Tenzil said. "Thanagar will take the longest to cool down, but who's going to have to make the most concessions with other people to make everything work again?"

"Definitely Colu," Troy said. "It's probably almost their fault anyway, the- ah, pricks."

"And they've probably got a lot of housecleaning to do themselves. Brainy's just done a wonderful job so far in life messing up their little perfect world; far as I can tell."

His shot missed the pocket he had been aiming for. "Thoughts on Krypton?"

"They must really love the guy there to have stood up for him like that," Troy said. "And who knew? _Nobody _was expecting them to do what they did. And did you read their statement?"

"Yep. _Glowingly _positive. If I were the UP, I'd be _slightly_ worried about what that thousand-year stay in a bottle did to them right now."

"The guy could have just made a good impression, you know."

"That's probably more likely," Tenzil agreed. "But still, a thousand years the size of Shrinking Violet for a people who weren't meant to live that way? They've either held up really well or they're going to completely _lose_ it someday soon."

Troy shuttered. "_Please_ don't say that. Angry Daxamites are bad enough, at least lead is a _common_ substance."

* * *

"Valor forbid," Tenzil said under his breath as he sank the Q ball, ending the game. "Cheerful thoughts all around today, eh?"


	8. Blok and Dream Girl

Blok and Dream Girl

* * *

Blok sat on the dirt floor of his room, surrounded by plants. This was the best he could do to simulate being outside without actually going anywhere, and right now he felt the familiarity of his rooms could do him good.

He sunk his hands into the thick soil of the potting beds and listened to their voices.

* * *

Nura cursed herself for having taken a second dosage of her keep-awake pills. She had taken them that first night, when everything looked like it was about to fall apart. She hadn't wanted to know how it all ended. Then there was the second night. Then she had been digitized, which wasn't really _restful_, but at least the aftermath had kept her going through the disastrous team relations of the next day. Then she had let Brainy out the back door, and gone back to her room to take another pill to keep her going one more day; even though she knew better.

She had crashed right then, going for her pills, only just about managing to hit the bed.

She wondered absently if she hadn't done it on purpose. Passing out kept her away from all the drama going on in the team.

But she was awake now, after almost fourteen hours, and the late-morning sun was coming in the windows; and if she could forget the last three days, everything would be fine.

* * *

Blok listened to his plants and the rocks of planters. They talked to him of the ground and the nitrogen and the wind and the rain.

The door opened and an unusually-disheveled Dream Girl came in.

"I've had a lot of time to think lately, you know?" she asked, seeming slightly out of it. "I mean, I was up for three days straight and I'm not sure fourteen hours made that much of a dent. Not really with a lot of caffeine and stuff running through me."

She sat down on the floor unsteadily. "I mean, I took the pills to keep from seeing the future. That usually makes me freak out when I see stuff I'm stressed out about."

She laughed a little. "And then there was Kell, going around saying he knew how it all turned out. And you know what? What's with us and time travel anyway? We do so much and get ourselves into so much trouble when Superman sees the stuff he's not supposed to know. I mean, our lives would be so much simpler if we weren't messing around with time, you know?"

Blok waited patiently. Nura was in a talking mood, clearly needing to get some things off her chest.

"And me, of course. What's with destiny, anyway, when the things I see can be not what I think and people from the future are wrong? I mean, where does that leave us?"

She swayed in place. "Is there no security in the world? I was the one who let Brainy out the back way, you know. I told him he'd be back. But hey, what if I'm wrong? And I saw us having leadership elections, and Imra winning. What if I'm wrong about that?"

"What's the point of Naltor, anyway, or me having powers and someday having to run the whole dang planet when weird stuff happens that we have no control over? Why can I see the future if it doesn't even really apply sometimes? Am I the only person with existential problems right now? Silly question, I know I'm not. I saw that."

* * *

Blok took a few minutes to try and decipher what Nura had been trying to say. "Dream Girl, are you asking me if I believe in destiny?"

"I dunno," she said, flopping down onto the floor. "Why are there rocks here?"

"The rocks speak to me."

Nura was quiet. "What do they say?"

"They speak of time and nature and the way of things."

"Are you being philosophical again?"

"No. I am answering your question."

She rolled over to look at him. "Which one?"

"Which one do you think?"

* * *

Nura tried to pull her mind together from the fog of chemical stimulants to try and think straight. "It sounds like both to me."

"It could be," Blok agreed amiably. "What do you think?"

"Not much at the moment," she admitted. "I fried my mind taking all those pills to keep from seeing into the tomorrow and I'm not going to be really settled out for a while yet. I'm no good at thinking right now."

"Try," he prompted gently. "Activity will dispel the disorientation."

"Well," she said. "As far as time goes, I guess you mean it just passes. The time itself has nothing to do with anything. Naltor's like that. Space-time is just a way of describing position, after all. Like map coordinates. You can't do nothing about it. And you've got time travel in there with that too. Messy stuff, time travel. Specially when you don't know what's right or wrong or going on."

Nura became very fascinated with a fern for a minute. "Nature… the nature of things I guess. There are some things that just happen. My dreams just happen. Our powers just happen. Accidents just happen. There's plenty of things I see that just happen; and I can't do anything about it. Some stuff just are. What's to do? Can't fight nature. S'been proved."

"And the way of things is just weird. Same's nature. There's plenty that just the way of things that gets changed though, so hey, how's that for permanence?"

Blok rose, careful not to disturb his rocks and plants. He sat next to Nura and she leaned into him. He was large and solid and seemed to be the only true thing in her world right then.

"I know much about destiny and the way of things, Nura Nal." His voice grated like gravel. "One day my body will give into the rain and the wind and the abrasion. I will be ground down until I am naught but grains of sand, and eventually I will once again be rock and I will have combined with grains from others of my people. Together we will make a new person, who will also know of nature; and eventually that person will do the same as I had."

"You make everything sound so _easy_, Blok," Nura sighed. "It's like talking to Jan. And way to be different in reproduction, by the way. Destiny just happens to you._ I _have to see little bits and pieces of it every day. You know I left Naltor because I could see so much more than everyone else?"

"I had not."

"I used to be able to talk to my little sister Mysa. But she left for Zerox when just before my mother died and I couldn't tell anyone about how much I wanted to try and thwart what I saw. So I knew I couldn't just sit around anymore and I ran off one day. I saw mother die two months later, just after I joined that traveling show as Madame Mysterio."

Blok looked down at her. "Did she talk to you before she died?"

"No. You know Naltorians never see their own deaths? Others might, but its taboo to tell them. Everyone usually can tell anyway, though. People will either start hanging around more or less than usual. And mother was sick already anyway. So I saw just before she died and I never talked to her again. Didn't tell Mysa either, but that's cause I didn't know how to reach her. She didn't know cause she wasn't born with the precognitive gift."

Nura grimaced. "Not that it's much of a gift, really. Most of the time you don't see many pleasant things. At least I don't. There's a theory floating around that Naltorians kept the future-seeing aspect of the magic they had after they left Zerox because of the planet and the way the first settlers were. They all focused on prescience-magic. Scrying and fortune-telling and such. Eventually people realized they couldn't do any sort of other magic, not like their ancestors had. But you know there was a prophecy that said -in no uncertain terms, as far as most prophecies go- that that would happen. But nobody left."

"It sounds to me, Nura, as if you are wondering if you are shackled to destiny."

"That's always been my problem, Blok," she told him. "Too powerful, too interested in changing what I see. Naltor doesn't like messing with the future. Most of them are happy just to let it happen. I tried for a long time and eventually managed to change the small stuff. But the big stuff? Never able to change that. But … what just happened…"

Blok looked at the top of her head. For once it wasn't brushed, and it poofed out more than usual. He finally reached the conclusion that Nura was really worried about what she was saying.

"It would seem to me," he told her slowly, with all the weight of a mountain. "That when Imperiex came to this century, he disrupted the future so completely that it no longer existed in that form. Kell-El only thought he knew what was going to happen. I imagine that if you talked to Triplicate Girl, she would tell a very strange story."

"I bet." She looked up at him. "It's great to be able to call Lu that, again. I hope she perks up to her old self now. We all missed her. I know."

Nura looked down again, staring at the floor. When she spoke, her voice was resigned. "So you're saying it only turned out that way because of someone messing with the timestream? That doesn't bode well for me, Blok."

"I do not recall saying that is the only time that could happen Nura," Blok said. "I only recall giving my viewpoint on the current, unexpected, state of events."

Everything was quiet for a long time.

* * *

"There is a saying," he told her, trying to break the silence. "_'Destiny frames your life, but you paint the picture'_."

"That's nice," she said absently. "Not a metaphor I would expect from a silicone-based people, though."

"It is not native Dryadian," Blok said. "It comes from the human settlers on the planet."

"It might be more comforting if I understood it better."

Blok smiled. "Have you been listening to yourself, Nura? You are thinking clearly now, I believe."

Nura thought about it. "Huh. I guess you're right."

There was a pause. "You know, this has been a really strange conversation. Always off topic. 'Trippy', like."

"I believe it is the sleep deprivation talking, Nura. You have sounded a bit off."

"Really?" She caught sight of a bed of flowers. "Are those poppies?"

"Yes. Colorful, are they not?"

"Very." Nura bothered to take a look around the room. Most of it seemed to be a rock garden, with small plots of flowers around. There was moss in place of carpet, and small lights hung from the ceiling. There were potted plants as well; she assumed they were for 'talking to' moreso than the others. The rocks sparkled every so often, when the sunlight streaming through the windows changed.

She heard birdsong and turned to look at the other side of the room. All the windows were open, and seeds were scattered about the windowsills. There was a mockingbird there, imitating a sparrow.

"Do the birds talk to you too, Blok?" she asked. "Can you tell what their songs mean?"

"I do not know the language of birds. But it does not mean I cannot enjoy it."

"Yeah," she smiled. "I know what you mean. Birds sing so nicely, and they can fly, just like us. But they don't have to be stuck in one place. Not like us."

"People are not stuck, Nura Nal." Blok told her. "They can leave just as easily as the wind leaves. It just depends on whether they _feel_ they can leave or not."

"I guess sometimes people have to give that, though. Permission to leave. Permission to do anything, really. So many rules."

"Sometimes. Mostly, though, the people must give it to themselves. They must make the choices. Just as you can choose to act on what you see, or not tell any others, or let the people involved decide. No one truly makes you do anything."

Nura watched the mockingbird as it ate the seed left out for it. Eventually it sang a little more, copying the strains of some outdoor concert perfectly, and flew away.

"We paint the picture of our own lives, hm?" She asked the thin air. "Destiny is just how it gets shown, isn't it? The picture is all yours. Destiny just tells the where it ends up and what we can use to shape them."

"And your question finds its answer, Nura Nal."

She beamed at him. "Thanks. You let your plants and your rocks tell you more secrets of the universe, okay?"

"They are not secrets, Nura. Anyone can find them."

"Well, my dreams tell me secrets, too. But everyone finds out about them sooner or later."

* * *

Blok carried her back to her bed when she fell asleep against him, thinking about what she hoped the future would hold.


	9. Karate Kid, Element Lad, & Chameleon Boy

**Karate Kid, Element Lad, and Chameleon Boy**

* * *

Chameleon Boy paced around his room, restless. Having a day off would have been a good thing at any other time, and he probably _did _need to catch up on his sleep… but now was not the best time. He was too worried. First he had just worried about Brainy, that night he and Lightning Lad had been on stakeout. Then about everyone else, afterwards. And then again, about Brainy; then about the team, then about Brainy again…

His mind seemed to have finally settled on being generally worried.

He set off in search of Saturn Girl.

* * *

Element Lad was up early, and was fully awake when Cosmic Boy's announcement came over the intercom. His quarters felt less like home than usual, despite all the things he'd crammed into it since he lost his former home. The corner he reserved for meditation seemed too small, the rest of the room to busy.

He went to Karate Kid's rooms.

* * *

Karate Kid was sitting on the floor, just beginning the calming exercises that would ease his way into meditation. He sat on the one mat in his mostly-bare room, a chest of drawers and the bed the only bits of furniture.

There was a polite knock on the door.

Val reached for his ring and triggered the door controls. "Looking for a quiet place to think, Jan?" he asked kindly. "I imagine that your room is a bit too distracting right now."

"As always, you know what the problem is," Element Lad said ruefully. "And yes. Can you spare some floor space?"

"Anything for a friend."

* * *

Cham was not finding Saturn Girl anywhere. He passed Garth, who was, for some reason, cleaning the headquarters with a determination unseen anywhere but in battle. He didn't even notice the Durlan. He passed lots of closed doors on the way to Saturn Girl's room. Everyone was either out or not feeling very social. He tried her door.

It was locked.

He stared at the door in frustration, willing it to open. The door stayed stubbornly shut.

Cham sat down with is back against the wall opposite the door. He considered his options. He could go and try to think everything through on his own, which he knew wouldn't end well; or he could go to one of the other Legionnaires.

But he couldn't figure out who. He had known Triplicate Girl the longest, with the exception of Brainy. He didn't want to disturb her either, though. She would still be sorting herself out after finding her other body again. He could go to Bouncy or Phantom Girl, but Bouncy would probably be with Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl's door had been one of the closed ones.

Though there was always Karate Kid.

* * *

The serene silence of Karate Kid's room was broken once again by a door buzzer. Val opened an eye and looked at Jan. The other man was already up and heading towards the door.

He opened the door and smiled at the newcomer. "Did you need someone to talk to, Chameleon Boy?"

"Oh yes," the younger team member said in relief. "I've been trying to track down Saturn Girl or somebody but there's kind of no one around. Is Val in here?"

Cham craned his head to see over Jan's shoulder. Val smiled at him. "Come in. Talk. It seems like you need to."

"Thank you," he said earnestly, and came to plop down on the floor. Jan resumed his seat across from Val and looked expectantly at the Durlan.

Cham started to talk. "So I've been trying to find someone to talk to because I've just been so worried about everything what with Brainy having walked out without telling anyone anything and everyone seems to be mad at each other and I just wanted to wake up this morning and have everything go back to the way it was!"

"No commas?" Val asked innocently. "Your state of mind is calmed when you breathe, Chameleon Boy."

"You cannot go back on change," Jan said. "You must live with change, and realize how you relate to the new situation."

"But… everything worked, the way it was," Chama protested. "It didn't _need_ to change."

"Change happens whether or not the ones involved believe it was needful," Jan told him. "Most times it is because the need for change is not evident until the change has happened."

Cham sighed. "So then what change was needed here? I'm not seeing it."

"Well, did you need to change?"

"I don't know," Cham admitted. "How _would_ I know?"

Jan smiled cryptically at him. "Can you think of anyone else who would need to change?"

"Kell," Cham said immediately. "Cos, Sun Boy, and Nemesis Kid."

"Is it possible that you are biased because of your dislike for them?"

That caught the younger Legionnaire off guard. "What?"

"You're only naming people you don't like," Val elaborated. "Just because you don't agree with them doesn't mean they are the ones who need changing. Being upset and angry are perfectly decent reactions to the recent turn of events."

"But-"

"Is there anyone you do like who you can think of that would seem in need of change?" Val asked.

Cham thought for a little bit, staring at the ceiling. "Shrinking Violet? She needs to get a clue about Brainy already."

Jan nodded encouragingly.

"Uh… Lightning Lad and his temper?" he sounded more confident now.

Jan kept smiling.

"Triplicate Girl getting herself back together. _That_ needed to happen. And-"

He racked his brains. "Um… who else?"

"Well, what about you?" Val asked.

"_Me?_"

* * *

Val watched Cham while he tried to figure out what the question meant.

"Me?" he squeaked again.

"Yes, you," Jan said amusedly. "Everyone involved in change is affect in some way. In what ways do you need to change?"

"I- uh- how-?"

"It involves much thinking, does it not? And self-reflection?"

"Meditation helps," Val put in firmly. "Very much."

Cham took a deep breath. "Okay, then. How do you do that?"

* * *

It was quiet and peaceful with just the three of them in there.

Then Cham spoke again.

"So, about the team… do you think they'll be able to pull themselves together?"

"Chameleon Boy," Jan said gently. "Almost everyone on this team has spent the last eight years living together, fighting together, working together… if they haven't been able to figure out each other's peculiarities by now, and sort out conflicts, I don't see how they can handle anything together."

"But everyone seems so divided-"

"We all survived Trom together," Jan reminded him quietly. "No one died this time around. The Legion will survive." He had never opened his eyes.

Cham and Val had an awkward silence between them. What did one say to someone who had lost their entire planet?

"Um, Jan?" Cham was worried about saying the wrong thing.

"What was Trom like?" Val asked, seeming much more direct than usual.

Jan opened his eyes and smiled. "Beautiful."

"Like what?" Cham prompted.

The last Tromian unfolded himself from his meditating position and shifted on his mat. "There were the churches," he told them. "All made of wood and warm stone and colored crystal windows. Every one was built with the powers of the person who dedicated themselves to it."

His smile widened as he remembered. "Each one was different in looks. But in each one the wood came right out of the stone. Stone walls and stone floors, with chairs and benches and decorative carvings looking as if they had grown there. The colored crystals were built out of the stone, and each panel was connected to the other. The colors blended together. No factory made pieces or crude fastenings anywhere."

"All the houses were built the same way. Each person, when they moved away, made their own house out of a framework. Simple materials. Plywood and such. Then they would transmute it into whatever they wanted. Old houses, when people moved out or died, were transmuted back into the earth. Nothing was ever quite the same from day to day, no matter where you were."

"That sounds wonderful," Cham said wistfully.

"And then there were the forests and the lakes and the grasslands." Jan's eyes were focused on something far away. "Ancient, all of them. The forests were huge. Sometimes my family and I would go into one of them. We'd look up at the old trees and try to see the tops, and look on the forest floor for new seedlings. The lakes were so deep and clear and cool that you almost hated to swim in them, sometimes, they were so perfect. The grasslands would go on forever, no matter where you stood. Gold in the fall, green in the spring, and a rainbow in summer with all the wildflowers."

"I can't understand why anyone would want to destroy that," Val admitted.

"I don't, either," Jan told him. "But change need not be fathomable to those caught in it. It needs only to produce something that was not there before, and people need only to find how the change affects the universe.

"Keep telling us about Trom, will you?"

* * *

It was a long time until Jan had run out of things to say about his home, and Val was glad to see the light in his eyes when he finished. He knew his friend could go back to his rooms now, and feel at home once again.

Cham stood at the same time Jan did. The Durlan smiled at him a little.

"Hey, Jan?"

"Yes?"

"You know how you were saying it might be me that needs changing?"

"I remember."

"Well," he said, taking a deep breath. "I think I figured it out. I need to learn to look deeper into people. I need to learn to let people go, too. It's just been that there's so few people who will look at me without contempt that I don't want to lose any of them. But they need to learn about stuff, too, and I need to get out of the way. I'll just run people over trying to get them to like me. So I need to learn to slow down and look a little harder."

Jan smiled widely at him. "The meditation helps, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I think I'll do it more."

He had a thoughtful look on his face. "Jan, the people who change affects the most, do they need it the most?"

"Perhaps."

"Well," Cham said with conviction. "I hope that wherever Brainy went, he'll find someone willing to listen while he sorts everything he needed fixing out. And someone willing to really_ look_ while he finds the new him."

Jan put an arm around Cham's shoulders, proud. They walked out together and left a very satisfied Val, secure in the knowledge that at least two of his friends were better off now, behind.


	10. Shrinking Violet

****

Shrinking Violet

* * *

Salu woke to the dark navy sky of a morning before dawn.

She closed her eyes and wished the world was back the way it had been barely a week earlier.

It seemed so long ago. So much could change in the space of five days.

But the world was still the same when she opened her eyes again.

* * *

She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to eat. She didn't want to talk to anyone.

She just wanted to be alone, however much that hurt; and however much she didn't want to think about the empty feeling that had settled in her chest.

* * *

Some time later, Cosmic Boy's voice came in over her ring, lying on top of her short bedside bookcase.

"Attention, Legionnaires. This is an off-duty day. Enjoy yourselves."

_Enjoy_ herself? How could she enjoy herself when she hurt so much?

* * *

She only forced herself out of bed when the rising sun started to burn her eyes.

She could only stare into the closet blankly when she managed to open it; all it held were her replacement uniforms.

She shook her head to try and clear the fog that had settled between her ears, but stopped when she started to feel the gnawing emptiness again. Salu went for the trunk at the foot of her bed to pull out some civilian clothes.

* * *

Salu paused before going out her door. She was distantly hungry, but if she went out her door she would run into someone. Or someone would seek her out.

Worse, she would just _see_ another person.

She wasn't up to that yet. She put on her flight ring and dropped out her window instead.

* * *

She walked the streets of New Metropolis's historical district, popularly called Old Town by the locals. There were few people up at dawn, and she only found one open café. She bought herself the simplest things on the menu, cornbread and milk.

It reminded her of home.

When her order came it had a side of strawberries. Somehow she managed not to cry, remembering how much Brainy had liked the strawberries she had brought him when they had returned from space.

Salu ate the food quickly and left as soon as she could.

* * *

The stone buildings rose up around her, some of the oldest structures in the surrounding thousand miles. This part of town housed only the rich and the reclusive. No one was out on the streets, despite the mid-morning hour. She sometimes caught glimpses of stone manors down alleys between the historical sites. If she kept walking she would hit the privately held estates of the Upper District.

They wouldn't care who she was. They would evict her forcefully as soon as they found her.

And the way she was feeling, she was likely to fight back.

The Legion didn't need more media coverage than it already had. She turned down the next alley back to the city she came to.

* * *

Salu came up in front of a stone building that was understated in its grandeur and possessed of an enormously peaceful quality.

She smiled for the first time all day and silently thanked Lord Valor for guiding her footsteps to providence when she could not.

* * *

Salu stepped over the threshold of the Valorites of Solitary Enlightenment's North Metropolis Chapter. The monk on door duty behind the small booth beside the entrance to the cells met her at the end of the small lobby.

He bowed slightly and spoke softly. "Good morning, sister. What is your need today?"

"Introspection," Salu answered. "Peace. Relief from pain. Um…"

The monk smiled at her as she searched for words to describe how she felt, and wrote a note in his ledger book. "You will be wanting pine incense, I think." He turned to take pinches of different ground plants out of small brass bowls. He mixed them together in a plate the size of her palm with a stick of the pine incense he had mentioned, and handed it to her.

"This contains jasmine, lavender, acorn, and violet," he told her kindly. "Come with me."

Salu followed him down narrow stone hallways, dimly lit with candles surrounded by frosted glass. They passed many thick wooden doors, all with small cards stuck into holders beside the doorframes at about shoulder height. Eventually they came to a hallway with no cards in the holders.

The monk fished a card out of his pocket and stuck it in the holder of the nearest door. He pulled a pen out and wrote down the herb mixture and time on it. He unlocked the door and held it open for her, revealing the softly-lit interior, illuminated by only a single thick candle.

Clearly centered in the doorway, set into the opposite wall, was a small alter with the candle flame burning on it. Salu took the incense plate from the monk and stepped inside. He closed the door behind her.

She crossed the floor to the altar and put the plate down on top of it. Kneeling, she made the appropriate gesture of reverence: two fingers touched to the forehead, lips, and breastbone. She put her hands on the floor and touched her forehead to the altar.

"Valor give me strength," she whispered; then raised her head and lit the incense in the flame. She touched it to the crushed plants on the plate until it smoldered. She let the scent of the pine and the herb blend dissipate into the cell before backing up into the center of the room and sitting cross-legged on the floor, head bowed and hands on her knees.

* * *

Salu inhaled deeply and let the scented air fill the empty space within her. Everything was up to her in this sect of Valorism; that was why it was so favored on Imsk and a few other independent-minded planets. There was no need to listen to others and be _given_ answers.

Imsk held that the truest answers always came from yourself.

She wasn't quite sure how to start.

Slowly, an idea came to her. She started to dismiss it as too sentimental, then remembered what her mother had told her the first time she had taken Salu to one of these Order Houses.

'_Emotions are by nature sappy. Embrace it and let it all out.'_

And more words of wisdom, when she had been reluctant to do just that.

'_There's a reason these cells are soundproof and haven't got any surveillance. If there's something you're too embarrassed to let anyone see or hear you do, you can always do it here. It's just between you and yourself once that door closes.' _

So Salu took a deep breath and started to talk out loud.

* * *

"You were what really struck me that mission, Brainy," she said shakily. "You seemed just the same at first, still just as condescending and dismissive. But then we got into battle. You _asked_ for help. I heard you. You'd _never _done that before, at least not where I could hear you, and I couldn't say no. Then you let me help out with Garth's new arm. That's another you never accepted: help. Later on, you took my advice about Ayla."

She laughed a little. "The great Brainiac 5 never took advice from anyone. I was intrigued by this new you, Brainy; interested enough to stay and do labwork instead of helping out gathering intel in the field."

Her face fell as she thought of the next big mission she had been on. "Then on Kandor, when those people in the city hall recognized you as the great-great-great grandson of the one who had condemned them to living in a glass bottle for over a century? You stunned everyone that day, Brainy. We all learned more about you in that hour and a half than we had learned in the last six years of living with you."

Salu sighed with regret. "We- we all should have noticed how you'd changed after that mission. I still can't understand how we let things get so out of hand. You could have just _asked_ for help, you know. We would've given it to you.

She felt tears coming on. "That gathering on the ship, when we were all gearing up to fight Imperiex for the last time? I noticed you standing off to the side, looking out the window. You didn't join in at the end. You never really did, but-"

Salu swallowed the lump in her throat. "-you were always there; looking a little proud and a little smug and you had just the _tiniest_ hint of happiness somewhere in your eyes. Then Superman came out later on, and all he would say was that you weren't coming. You did show up though. You showed up and you shut _everything_ down, just like turning off the lights. I got really worried then. You had been acting oddly but now you were acting like- like-"

Her head seemed to move automatically, hiding her face from the altar in front of her. "-like you were Imperiex. That was _horrible_, Brainy; when you came out of your lab on the ship. It was the worst thing I've ever seen; your face so blank and cold. You didn't care and all the warmth I'd seen you gain over the years was gone just like it had never existed. I _never _want to see something like that again."

The tears were threatening to spill over now. "I was out for about an hour after your ancestor shoved me into that wall. I woke up with Cham next to me on one side and Superman flatlining on the other and Trips sitting at my feet crying her heart out. Imra was the one who told me what happened. No one else would meet my eyes. She- she-"

Salu started crying. "She told me and my heart just broke. I didn't truly realize just how much I- I _couldn't_ think and my mind wouldn't wrap around the concept that you weren't really _you_ anymore; even when we jettisoned Superman's body. There was a _coffin_ and _everything_, Brainy! It was just too horrible to think about s-so I just stopped thinking. The- the-"

Her tears choked her throat for a moment. "The last thing I remember thinking before I got digitized was thanking Valor that we were _both_ going to be gone now, and maybe I'd get to see you again and I would tell you how I felt and everything would be all right again. But then I was back in the world and I could only remember that there was a time I didn't really exist and-"

She sniffed and smiled widely. "-you were back. You were _completely back_ and at first my mind wouldn't accept I wasn't hallucinating or something because it felt too good. But then you gasped and looked away and I saw the shame and the hurt there. I- I followed you and Imra because I couldn't do anything else and I think I thought that maybe I could tell you then. And then you'd _smile_ again. But I got in there and you- you just broke down _completely_ and I could tell you wouldn't _ever _be the same again."

The crying was making it difficult to talk now. "Then we got back here and it seemed like _no one_ else could see how much you hurt and people were saying you needed to _leave _but I know you were in no condition to go _anywhere_ and it was just like everyone was so _blind_ to it all but then you went and slipped past us all and you didn't _say_ where you were _going_ or _goodbye_ or _anything_ and all I can think about is how you said everything would be s-so much _easier if only you __**hadn't come back!**_"

Salu was well and truly sobbing now. "I-I'm _so scared_ someone's going to find your body turned up somewhere because you co-couldn't _live _with yourself anymore o-or that we'll never hear _anything _about you again!"

She felt another surge of emotion coming on a screamed, "_And I can't decide which would be worse!_ You really _hated _yourself when you left, Brainy! I could _tell_. And you were full of so much grief and hurt and pain and fear. And I'd _just_ gotten you _back_ after I'd thought I'd _lost_ you _for good_ without ever really _having_ you and everything looked like it was going to be _okay_ _for_ _just_ a _little bit_ and now you're _gone again_ and I'm not _sure_ if I'll _ever see you again_ an-and _**I feel so stupid doing this!**_"

* * *

Pain forced her to the floor, and she cried herself out on the stone flags.

Eventually the tears ceased and she could breath normally again, but her throat was raw and her nose was running and her eyes were puffy. She looked up at the altar. The incense had long since burned itself out, and all the scent that had given even just a little comfort was long gone.

The candle was on its last legs as well, the wick almost gone. She stared into the wavering flame and thought she could see something in its depths.

"_Please,_" she whispered hoarsely. "_Please_ _just let him come back, and I __**promise **__I'll tell him I love him._"

She shut her eyes against the still-present grief and hoped the coolness of the stone would seep into her body and numb all the painful tears inside. "_I don't want to fold paper birds for him. __**Please!**_"

The candle guttered out and left her in darkness.

* * *

Salu staggered heavily out of the cell, plate in hand. She pulled the card out of its holder, not really thinking.

Her entire mind was preoccupied with the thought that _nothing_ about admitting to her emotional pain had really helped.

She only felt worse.

She strode past the monk on door duty, and unseeingly dropped the plate and card onto his ledger.

* * *

The shock of cold air hit her as the front door closed behind her. Salu wrapped her arms around herself and trudged back to HQ.

* * *

The cold numbed everything enough that she was able to sleep when she got there, but she knew that it would all hurt again when she woke.


	11. Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy

**Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy**

* * *

Jo jumped awake with a start, still in his uniform. Cos was yelling in his ear.

No, not yelling; he realized. He'd just forgotten to take his ring off before he fell asleep. The 'yelling' was him sleeping with his ear over the ring.

Between cursing himself in his head and rubbing his ear, it took a minute for the message to sink in.

_The day off?_

This was _no time_ for a day off.

* * *

He got his morning coffee and sat himself down at the monitor board console. Cos and the rest might think that a giant catastrophe meant that no crime was going to happen, and that was usually true.

But there had been panic and rioting in the streets all across the galaxy when the news had first come out about planets getting digitized. It _might_ be that everyone was too relieved to try anything. It _might _be that they were all still scared. It _might_ be that they were all too busy rebuilding and repairing and giving everything a once-over now that the madness was gone.

But he hadn't lived to grow up on Rimbor by taking that sort of thing for granted.

"_What do you_ _**mean, he's **__**gone?**_" Tasmia yelled at Jo. He had seen the blip on the screen that told him she was back in the building. He'd gone down to meet her.

Jo was starting to regret that now. "Invisible Kid and I did _not _break off our mission on Khundia just to come haul your _butts_ out of _mortal danger_, find out we _missed_ _it_, and _then _find out we _also_ missed our friend _disappearing into thin air!_"

"You also missed a meeting about what we were going to do about the guy," he told her.

"_They could have_ _waited!_"

"No one knew you were coming back."

"Of _all_ the-" she said angrily under her breath. "When a catastrophe so _huge_ that even the people _outside the galaxy_ pick it up happens, what could have _possibly_ possessed _any _of you to believe we weren't _rushing to get back here?_"

"No one's been really _here_ lately, if you know what I mean," Jo said. "Where is Lyle, anyway?"

"Went dashing off to find his boyfriend and Brainy, of course," she told him. "What a day _he'll _have. Now stop changing the subject."

"I wasn't changing the subject," he said defensively. "And all you've been doing is yelling at me. Would you like some hot chocolate or coffee or something?"

* * *

Tasmia considered snapping at him again, then realized that, strangely enough, she really _would_ like some hot chocolate. "_Fine._ Go make me some chocolate, Jo."

"Cool," he said, as they walked to the kitchen. "You know Cos gave everyone the day off?"

"He _what?_"

"I know, that's what I thought," Jo said. "But then, I also thought that he was yelling at me, but that was just me sleeping with my ring on."

"You _never _change, do you? Tell me again what my dear friend Tinya sees in you?"

"No clue." He grinned. "I'm just grateful she pays attention."

She listened to the silent building for a moment. "That _does _explain why it's too quiet around here."

They reached the kitchen and Jo started heating water. "Too quiet? Yeah. And I'm the only person here who seems to think that just because we take a day off, the rest of the galaxy is too."

"Actually, they are," she told him. "It's been really quiet everywhere these past two days. All the places that weren't obliterated, at least."

"Digitized," Jo said absently. "Then what about the rioting and the panicking?" The water finished heating and he dropped the chocolate into it.

"Only on the planets that were in the projected flight path. All the other ones, the only ones we could manage to switch ships at to get back here? They were panicking quietly indoors."

"Hm." Jo tapped the spoon he had been using to stir the chocolate into the water with on the side of the mug and handed it to her. "Here you go. One hot chocolate."

They sat in silence while she drank, taking in the uncharacteristically messy kitchen.

"So," Tasmia said, putting her mug down. "Clearly, I've missed a lot while I've been gone. Spar with me while you talk?"

Jo looked at her seriously. "You're _sure_ no one's going to make any trouble?"

"The alarms _will_ go off, you know," she reminded him. "So are you or not?"

He shrugged. "Sure. Been too long, anyway."

* * *

They were going to spar in the training room, as usual; but Jo took a look in before they opened the door and saw Nemesis Kid _and_ Sun Boy in there.

He didn't want to get involved with two of the most caustic members of the team, and especially not after their recent behavior. He and Shadow Lass went up to the roof instead.

* * *

Tasmia squinted in the bright, warm sunlight of mid-morning as she emerged onto the top of Legion HQ. She didn't particularly like the sun; but she could live with it. Looking at everything during the day was certainly interesting enough to make up for the positively enormous difference between light levels on Earth and back on Talok. She had always meant to ask Jo if could see past humans' visible spectrum with his ultra-vision switched on, but somehow it never seemed right to ask.

Jo had been clearing away the tables and chairs that the Legion kept on top of their headquarters in the warmer weather. He stowed the folding chairs into a compartment built into the tall supplementary solar-power fins attached to the top of the tower, packed with meters of wiring and tubing that channeled every speck of power in the building.

He finished and adopted a fighting stance. "So, what do you want to know first?"

She pulled her hooded cape off and stuck her gloves into her belt. "I _just _managed to miss what _could _have been the fight of my life. Where do you _think_ I want you to start?"

Jo blocked her as she aimed a high kick for his face. She was starting off traditionally for this fight.

"Well, it wasn't as interesting as you'd think," he told her. "The giant evil egomaniacal robot was more interested in trying to psych us out than really fighting. I thought we spent way too much time trying to destroy bits of it instead of really getting anything done."

"'Giant evil egomaniacal robot?'" Shady asked skeptically, countering his punch.

"You didn't hear about that?" he asked, aiming for her abdomen. She moved fluidly out of the way and chopped at the back of his neck.

Jo ducked and continued. "The guy went and enslaved the Hivemind to make himself a huge body. It was kinda creepy."

"So, were you just panicking from the danger or were you really the only person thinking about battle strategy?" Tasmia asked as she attacked his side. He brought his arm up defensively and tried to push her off-balance. She fell to the ground and rolled away, coming up on her feet.

"Hey, you know me, Shady. I see a problem, my brain goes 'hit it!'" Jo tried to ram her with his shoulder and she used his momentum to launch herself over his back. He headed face-first for the ground, but managed to turn the fall into a somersault. "But I also know when I'm outgunned. That was a problem you couldn't solve with punches. At least Violet pulled herself together long enough to go through the computer memory and pull up some sort of shielding stuff that would work against it."

Tasmia raised her eyebrows as she evaded his next attacks. "Violet, pulling herself together? Maybe other people think she's a shy little thing, but she's not the type to go and have a nervous breakdown at the first hint of danger. She was the only one willing to investigate Andromeda, remember?"

"Yeah, well-" Jo's breath huffed out of him as Shady scored a hit. "No one thinks that anymore. Her personality's come out with a bang, now. Dunno why. I guess she just got used to us."

"Or she realized that Cosmic Boy wouldn't freak out if she showed off her military training."

"Maybe. But be careful with her for a little bit, okay? She fell _really_ hard for Brainy while you were gone. She's hurting."

"_What?_" Jo used the distraction this news caused her to get in a glancing blow to her jaw. Her head jerked to the side with the force of his strike, but she recovered quickly. "How did _that_ happen?"

"No one really knows, I think. All we know is she takes a mission or two with the guy, and all of a sudden she gets _really obvious_ about it. 'Course, he doesn't notice; 'cause he's dense like that _and _he's doing the exact same thing."

"Are you trying to tell me," Tasmia said between strikes. "That Violet and Brainy _actually_ fell for each other?"

"I am absolutely serious," Jo said with conviction. "Go ask anybody."

"Hn." Ducking down, she rammed her shoulder into him with a particularly viscous blow to his abdomen. "I _hate_ it when I miss things because I was on a mission."

Jo felt the air _whuff_ out of him and smiled grimly. They were fighting dirty now. This was the fun part.

* * *

Both of them agreed to a break some time later. They sat together on the waist-high protective barrier around the edge of the roof. The sun was past its zenith, at a position that told Jo it was sometime in mid-afternoon. He was sufficiently worked out, in a way no other sparring partner would give him. Tasmia was the one person he could trust not to hold back when fighting, and the one person he trusted to get out of the way in time in case he accidentally lost control of himself.

Of course, he could always fight Karate Kid now; but the newcomer didn't know about dirty fighting, so far Jo knew. And he wouldn't pull something like that on a friend.

Shadow Lass restarted the conversation that had waned when they had started getting serious. There simply wasn't enough concentration either of them could afford to spare during fighting like that.

"We got off topic. Was your fighting really _that _bad?"

"Actually, yeah," he admitted. "It was more like running a relay than fighting a battle. People were going out in trios and pairs to try and hack bits off, but they just reformed. You'd think we would have thought of that, with all the times we've fought alongside Brainy and his self-healing stuff."

Tasmia shook her head. "Hindsight is ever accurate. Since you brought it up, I assume that you have some better ideas of how it could've been done?"

"A lot. We could have always gotten Violet to short-circuit the evil robot, but nobody thought of that."

"From what you told me, that might have been a good thing."

"Maybe. Tinya could have done something like that too, but obviously that didn't happen. Gim was probably big enough to punch him out, but I guess the shielding sort of blocked that. Cos could've twisted everything up, there was enough metal around. Dirk could probably have made a big enough sun flare to melt a bunch of stuff, and Drake might have. Together there should have been no problem. Jan or Condo could've done a lot of damage."

He rested his chin in his hand and thought. "Star Boy could have made a gravity well, maybe; and Tyroc could just scream and shatter everything."

"Vacuum of space," Tasmia pointed out.

"Well, what's Jan for? He could change it all to oxygen or something. Maybe Chameleon could've come up with something to change into that would've helped, and maybe Tenz could've eaten everything. Heck, we _had _the cruiser! We could've just gunned the guy down!"

Jo sighed with frustration. "The problem with that fight was that nobody was really sure what to do. Nobody felt really comfortable fighting in the first place and then nobody was really thinking. And there weren't a lot of people who could actually help out with that. I know_ I_ couldn't've, for all the powers I've got."

Now Tasmia thought. "And Brainy was always the planner. There's that, as well. You think him gone will keep making that difference?"

"I'm betting on it. Going to schedule extra training for myself. You're welcome to join."

"I might take you up on that."

* * *

They sat in comfortable silence for a little while, enjoying the feeling of being fully exercised.

"Being –digitized, was it?" Tasmia asked cautiously after the silence, trying to be tactful.

"Yeah," Jo confirmed. "Something about matter deconstruction. But there's not a whole lot to say. You just _were _and then you remembered you _weren't_ and everything was sort of back the way it was before."

"That sounds… pleasant."

"_Absolutely. _It's just as well you missed that part."

* * *

The silence returned and stayed until the sun disappeared behind the skyline of the city. Tasmia eventually wandered back downstairs to input her report to the computers. Jo stayed on the roof until the city lights came on for the night, watching his home.


	12. Invisible Kid and Chemical King

**Invisible Kid and Chemical King**

* * *

Lyle checked the lab for Brainy before anything else. His old friend wasn't in there, but there were signs someone had been using it. There was a cot in the corner that hadn't been there the last time Lyle had been in HQ; and the remains of a meal were sitting out on the counter.

He smiled to himself and went to his room.

* * *

Condo woke slowly, swimming in and out of consciousness. The mid-morning sun was shining in through his window, and his room had all the pleasantness of an early summer day; despite the fact it was still mid-spring.

The weather never matched his mood.

His life had been turned upside-down so many times. Abandoned by his parents, 'kidnapped' by Invisible Kid, joining the Legion… he was never sure of what the future held. At least when he had been on Phlon in custody of the government, he knew how his day would go. Every single day, same as before.

He loved Lyle, and the Legion was the family he'd never had. But he wished his life was a little more secure.

* * *

Lyle opened the door to his rooms and sighed happily. It nice to be able to let his guard down after so long in enemy territory.

He opened his windows to let the spring breeze in and reveled in the skyscape of his city.

A note on the small table tucked into a corner of the room caught his eye. He picked it up.

* * *

Condo decided he should get up and eat something; and just try and avoid seeing much of anyone. He wasn't in a talking mood.

He wandered down to the pantry and made himself a brunch sandwich. He took a seat in the common room and downed his medicine, pulling a face at the taste. Water helped slightly, but didn't fully erase the memory. Curling up on the couch, he worked through his breakfast.

* * *

Lyle sat down heavily on the bed and read the note again.

Gone? Brainy was gone?

He pulled up the Legion roster on his ring and went to find his boyfriend.

* * *

Condo had just finished his breakfast when the door opened. He craned his head around to look over the back of the couch.

Lyle walked in, looking nothing like his usual cheerful self. He sat down heavily next to Condo.

"How long has he been gone?"

"Midmorning yesterday. There was a swearing-in and no one really had the heart to drag him out of the lab to come attend. He left while we were busy with that."

Lyle sighed and rested his head in his hands. "And I _missed_ him. I missed by best and oldest friend in the Legion leaving after the _worst _experience of his life. I wasn't there to help him."

"You can't do everything, Lyle," Condo told him quietly.

"I should've been there for him." He looked over at Condo. "I was there for you."

"On accident. You wouldn't have ever heard of me if Phlon's government hadn't called you for help."

Lyle sighed. "So? I was there."

"And it's not like you didn't try." Condo took his hand and squeezed it. "You kidnapped me right out from under the scientist's noses. Straight out of government custody into Legion custody."

"Wasn't custody. It was… guestdom."

"I don't think that's a word."

Lyle shook his head. "'No use crying over spilled drink'. I heard that somewhere. He's gone. I'll find him."

"And kidnap him?"

"If I have to." Lyle smiled wanly. "So, who'd we swear in?"

Condo leaned back into the couch cushions. "Have you heard about Superman X yet?"

"Enlighten me."

* * *

"That must be the strangest story I've ever heard," Lyle said, shaking his head as the story finished. "But it explains why I hadn't heard about this Imperiex guy in all the time I've spent getting information on bad guys."

Worry crossed his face. "Is Lu okay?"

"I think so." Condo shrugged. "I haven't seen her today. But she's probably better."

Lyle sighed. "How much do you want to bet that I'll get pulled from field work to do lab work?"

"I was thinking that Shrinking Violet would get the lab assignment."

"Violet?" Lyle looked at him askance. "Well, yeah, I _guess_ she has a science background; but Brainy's_ life_ was science and biology's what I've been doing since I could read. Violet started physics after she started school."

"But she's good. And she's already been off fieldwork since, um, awhile ago," Condo told him. "Eight months?"

"Eight months? Why wouldn't she get sent back to fieldwork? That's what she's been doing since, well, since forever."

"Nobody had the heart to send her back out. Not with everyone so… gloomy, with the war."

Lyle rolled his eyes. "So? We've lived through the White Triangle and the Fatal Five and the nightmare that was Zerox. She could handle fieldwork and spying with this guy."

Condo shifted uncomfortably. "This was different."

"What; did he attack her personally or something?"

"No." The more reserved man looked down. "She, um, well-"

Lyle looked at his boyfriend in exasperation. "Just _say_ it, will you?"

"She and Brainy fell in love."

"With who?"

"With each other."

"_NO._" He sat straight up. "They did _not_."

"They never really said it to anyone or really admitted it to each other but we could all tell what had happened because of the way they kept looking at each other and the way they acted and everyone was so unhappy but it was so nice to see at least two people happy and no one could send them apart when, well, oh-"

Condo blushed as he realized where he was going with this. "It was a little like us, actually."

Lyle chuckled and kissed him. "Yeah, I wasn't really supposed to keep you there at the Outpost. But nobody had the heart to make you leave. Good thing, too. I'd be dead if it weren't for you."

"You would've made it," Condo mumbled.

"No, I wouldn't've. So just how in love_ are _those two?"

He tried to explain.

* * *

Lyle shook his head. "I'm sorry, I just can't see that. Well, I mean, I _can_, but I can't imagine it really happening."

"It surprised us too."

"I bet."

"But they seem to love each other a lot. More than I think you could tell unless you were here." He looked at his newly-returned boyfriend imploringly. "Could you- could you not mention it to her? She doesn't know that Brainy liked her too and nobody told her and she's _hurting_ right now."

"We're all hurting, Con." Lyle seemed to remember something, and laughed mirthlessly.

"We must be the _unluckiest_ class ever."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, Legionnaires are sworn in in groups, usually; remember?" Lyle asked him. "Third wave Legionnaires, that's us. 'Third time's the charm'. Hah! Shows how wise conventional wisdom is."

Condo looked at him, lost.

"Me and Brainy and Violet and Shady and Andromeda," he continued. "Third group of Legionnaires to be sworn in, after the founders and then everyone else. Turns out Andi was being manipulated by terrorists and cost the galaxy Trom, I've been unofficially disowned, Brainy got his mind stolen and destroyed most of everything, and Violet's heart went and broke."

"More like shattered," Condo murmured.

"So there's my point," Lyle said. "Now that's all that's left is what Shady's problem is going to be."

"Can we not find out?"

Lyle smiled at him and stood. "I'm sure it'll happen when we're not excepting it. Now-"

He offered Condo his hand. The other man took it.

"-It seems we have a new HQ. Show me around, since it looks like I'm going to be here awhile?"

Condo smiled. "I'm glad to have you back."

"Me too."

* * *

The tour wasn't all about the new building. There was more talking and more kissing, and, eventually; a dinner together.


	13. Wildfire and Princess Projectra

**Wildfire and Princess Projectra**

* * *

Drake paced restlessly through the upper levels of Legion HQ, waiting for dawn to break. He had often thought that not needing to sleep was a good thing. A body made of pure energy didn't need the rest a physical one needed, and he could just drift off into daydreams or dazes to rest his mind. He could stay up and do all the night watches, take any shift and any patrol.

But sleep meant you could forget about the world and its troubles for a little while.

So he measured the hallways by the length of his stride.

* * *

The rising sun shining through the wide picture windows of Projectra's room, hitting her square in the face. Her ring was beeping quietly at her.

She reached over to her bedside table, groping for the small bit of metal. Cos's voice came over, announcing a day off.

Jeckie sighed and reviewed her options for the day. Breakfast, first. Then- well, she could discharge her duties sooner or later.

Drake stopped at one of the long window banks that made up the outer walls of the hallways running up against the outside of the building. He could see the skyline of the city from here, New Metropolis stretching far off into the distance. Unending.

Full of people who didn't care what happened to him.

Though, really, what was his life if it wasn't that?

* * *

Jeckie rummaged in the back of her closet, finishing off her breakfast roll. She had to be –ugh- _royally presentable_ today.

She eventually found a set of clothes: a tank top and pants, long coat and boots; all in a dark eggplant. She grabbed a pair of gloves, padded on the backs of her hands and the first third of the fingers; reinforced around the wrists for combat practice.

The reflection in the mirror stopped her for a moment. It was the work of seconds to surround herself with an illusion of grandeur; gold embroidery and rich flowing velvet and sparkling jewels. Jeckie opened a door discretely set into the wall opposite her bed.

It opened into a small room, completely dominated on one wall by a giant view screen. The room was completely bare except for a chair, comfortably padded, anchored to the floor a few yards away from the screen.

She lounged in the chair and called up more illusions, changing the room into a chamber bedecked with thick tapestries and dimly lit by torches. The floor was covered with luxurious carpets, throws, and giant feather pillows. The chair became a towering wooden throne, thin and covered in gilded carvings.

Jeckie waited a minute to let her mind get used to seeing both reality and illusion, then flipped open a control panel on the arm of her actual chair. She pressed one of the buttons.

A man appeared on the screen, his look of surprise quickly repressed. "Your Highness!" he exclaimed, bowing. "I had not expected to hear from you so soon!"

"Your concern is noted, Lord Drenden," Jeckie said in high tones, putting on the air of complete boredom and distance she had been trained in.

"I trust that Your Highness is well?" Lord Drenden asked, his tone containing but the slightest hint of sleaze.

"I am as well as can be, considering the circumstances."

"It would greatly grieve me and all my family were it the case that you were otherwise, Highness."

"I am sure it would, Lord Drenden." _Though it wouldn't grieve you near so much to see your Baron-nephew that much closer to the top._ "I appreciate your involvement in events on Orando; and have no wish to see that duty compromised in any way."

"It is not a duty near so much as a pleasure, Your Highness," he told her modestly.

_Oh, yes, because you so enjoy power plays. _

"Are you sure Your Highness is entirely well?"

"Yes, Lord Dresden."

"It would be much safer, Highness, if you would return to Orando and resume your official position as Crown Princess Imperial; if I may be so-"

"You may _not_, Lord Drenden," she said cooly. "I continue my service in the Legion of Superheroes as so to learn of the peoples who will one day be my allies."

_You just want to parade your sons and nephews and male cousins around at court, to try and catch my eye._

"A Princess Imperial should not be made to serve, Your Highness. You are far above any of those you consort with-"

"I shall remind _you_,_ Lord_ Drenden, that Talok Vlll has long been an ally and a friend to Orando. I am honored to serve alongside their Shadow Champion. And I hardly think that the High Seer of Naltor would take kindly to the implication that her heir-daughter is any lesser in rank than a Princess of Orando. It may be granted that the President of the United Planets is not a position with quite the same sort of prestige as Empress or Queen, but such a distinguished lady as Winema Wazzo certainly deserves the deference due to any other Head of State."

"Of course, Your Highness." Lord Drenden bowed again. "I merely meant to say that-"

Jeckie waved a hand imperiously to silence him. She needed time to get her rising anger under control.

_This is only the first call and already I can't stand talking to the nobles! Well- if I have to do this, I may as well inject a bit of scandal. It's not as if I don't already horrify most of the gentry. _

" While I did not know him well, Brainiac 5 deserves respect as per his station on Colu. He could have a rank every bit as high as mine if he wished, as I am sure you _must_ know."

"_Princess!_" Lord Drenden said in shock, mouth hanging open. "Certainly you do not expect to honor a-"

"Do not presume what I can and cannot do or think, Lord Drenden!" she thundered. "I shall one day be Queen Imperiatrix, by token of my blood and my power!"

The disgraced man bowed even lower this time. "I am sorry, Your Imperial Highness."

"It would do you well to be so," Jeckie told him, calming herself down. "As to those who I- _consort_ with-"

Lord Drenden couldn't quite keep his sudden trepidation and fear from showing in his face.

Jeckie smiled wickedly. "I already have aspirations in that direction. I am sure you have heard by now of Karate Kid?"

"But- he- _Highness!_ He is even _less_ than a peasant, he-"

"Shall not be spoken ill of by you."

"Yes, Highness."

* * *

Drake had heard Jeckie talking through the walls. He walked into her room, the only one on the upper level; and noticed a door open just a crack.

Sound carried well through that small opening. He had to keep himself from laughing out loud at some of Jeckie's responses to the _oh-so-concerned_ Lord.

He settled for quiet chuckling instead.

Eventually he heard the princess and the lord exchange polite goodbyes. The viewscreen clicked off, followed by a muffled scream of frustration.

Drake got up and pushed the door open nonchalantly.

"_Very_ impressive, Princess," he said. "You should be Legion Leader, the way you talk. Rokk and Garth would never fight again."

Jeckie looked up from her hands. "So there _is_ life in this building."

"Nice room, by the way. When'd you have it put in?"

She waved a hand and the luxury vanished. "It's just an illusion, Wildfire. It saves money."

He shook his head sadly. "The richest heiress in the galaxy, worried about money."

"I'm not _worried_ about it," she retorted, standing up. "I just don't see the need to _waste_ it when a simpler solution works just as well."

"There's such a short supply of practicality in this galaxy, Princess. You should loan yours out."

"Always ready for a snappy reply, aren't you?"

"No more than your exalted self."

Jeckie rolled her eyes. "I thought you didn't like authority figures."

"Only when they're stupid," Drake assured her. "You're not. And it's a lot harder to hate authority when you know it on a first-name basis."

"I see you have learned the first lesson of despotism: a faceless enemy is a good enemy."

"Now, see, I've got plenty of face_ful _enemies, and it doesn't make them any less bad."

"Would these be personal enemies or general enemies?" she asked, ushering him out the door.

"Both," he said. "You know the general ones, but the personal ones are worse, in their own way."

_Oh how well I know that_, Jeckie thought. "I have countless personal enemies," she admitted. "And I have to talk to them _all_ today, to prove that I am_ not_ dead, or collapsed in a heap, or stripped of my mental facilities, or any _other _ridiculous rumor that may crop up. Truthfully, they would be much happier if I _hadn't_ come back."

Drake snorted, somehow. "I know the feeling. How do you survive?"

"Training."

"Wish _I'd_ had training."

She looked at him thoughtfully. "So, who are your personal enemies?"

"Oh, everyone," he said, sitting down on her bed. "At least, everyone I knew before the Legion."

"It _can't_ have been everyone," Jeckie said in disbelief. "There had to be at least _one_ person-"

"No friends, because I was too independent," Drake began, ticking answers off on his fingers. "Parents, who just wanted me to do what they said and not think for myself. A brother, who made trouble and came out smelling sweet as roses while I got my name tarnished. Scientists, who just wanted to know how I could be energy with a conscious and run tests. So no one to call, and no one to care about last week, or about any time before that."

"That seems to happen a lot around here," Jeckie observed. "You would think there would be more people who cared, or at _least _more ethics in science. We've got Chemical King with that problem, and Timber Wolf, and even Sun Boy; in a sense."

"What, Dirk?" he asked, surprised.

"I overheard him talking, once. You'd have to talk to him about it," she told him. "You could even add Invisible Kid, if self-experimentation counts."

Drake shook his head silently in reflection.

"At least you don't need to worry about that anymore. We've got a bit of a surfeit of independent types in the Legion."

"I'd noticed," he said dryly. "Do you have to do this all day?"

Jeckie sighed. "As many as I can fit in. It's ridiculous how much supervision government takes; and I'm not even Queen yet! I knew I wouldn't be able to do any exploring once I inherited, but I don't want to lose the Legion when that happens."

"Ah, you won't lose us. We'll probably follow you around, just for kicks."

She laughed a little. "Or spy practice. Violet in the tablecloth, Tasmia in the rafters, Lyle in plain sight, and Cham will probably be the chair I'm sitting on!"

"And Brainy grumbling at them all over the rings," he added, too caught up in the moment to catch himself.

* * *

Drake was busy calling himself five types of idiot when Jeckie made a little noise in the back of her throat.

"Speaking of personal enemies," she said wryly.

He grunted in agreement and tried to salvage the conversation. "Would you really take Val back with you to Orando?"

"If he'd go."

He was actually surprised the reply. "I thought you were just trying to antagonize the other guy."

"I was, a little. But it's still the truth."

"You two haven't known each other very long," he pointed out doubtfully.

"Have you ever had someone, where you were around them and everything just felt _right?_ Like you'd found a part of yourself you'd misplaced?"

Drake thought briefly of a certain Legionnaire. "Yeah."

"It's like that."

* * *

They sat in thoughtful silence for a few minutes.

"I should get back to calling," Jeckie said regretfully.

"You could put it off," Drake told her. "Do something else. I don't think you would have taken out those practice gloves if you weren't _planning_ on doing something else."

"I thought I might go pound some targets for awhile, to get some energy and frustration out beforehand. But Sims was being used, and I didn't feel like beating up my pillows."

"Couldn't you illusion yourself a target?"

"Have you ever tried playing a strategy game with yourself?" Jeckie asked him. He shook his head.

"It's a bit like that. You already know the moves and strategies of the other side. There's no challenge. And I'd still know it's not really there. I'd rather pound on something _solid_."

"So you talk with your enemies, and yell at them instead."

She snorted in amusement, realizing the source of her unusually uncontrolled annoyance. "Yeah, I guess so."

Her stomach growled at her, and Jeckie looked at the clock. It was rather later in the morning now. And breakfast had been short and simple.

"Would it be horribly uncouth of me to invite you to share lunch with me?" she asked Drake.

"Hey," he said, standing. "I watch people eat all the time. It doesn't seem nearly as rude when you don't need food."

He extended his arm. "May I, Princess?"

Jeckie giggled unexpectedly. "If only the nobles had your manners, Drake."

He escorted her to lunch.


	14. Timber Wolf and Dawnstar

**Timber Wolf and Dawnstar**

* * *

Brin woke up that day, a couple hours before dawn, and couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. So he lay still in his heap of blankets and pillows and mattress on the floor and thought about it.

Things had been working out, for once. The Legion had been all geared up to fight the last big fight; the finale to the great conflict. From his talks with the other Legionnaires, he knew that that was how it went. A new threat showed up, you found them, you collected information, you hunt them down, there's a final fight.

And then you win.

But the Legion had been losing, and that wasn't how it worked- and then out of nowhere, the next day, the old threat had been murdered and there was a new one.

And not just any new threat. It was a friend, a friend who had had something go horribly wrong somewhere. So the pattern got compressed into the space of three days; and everything started to fall apart. Everyone was falling apart.

So the Legion went into battle and lost.

But the threat-

Brin clenched his jaw and forced himself to think the word- Brainy; he was still defeated.

That thought had knocked him out of any comfort he'd had in the nest-bed he used. It seemed to confining; and he kicked the blankets off.

He needed to move while he thought. Kitchen time.

* * *

Maria was used to being up before dawn, but something was different today. There was too much tension for her to sleep, both within and without herself.

On Starhaven she had grown up around people who had known everyone for generations. Everyone knew how everyone else felt. You couldn't escape it. If a couple people had an argument, everyone knew and everyone got a little irritable.

She was used to gauging other people's reactions. Gauging this reaction was not pleasant.

So she had gotten up and left the building; flying off into the gray light of false dawn, headed for Shuster Park. It was the largest green space in the city, miles of nothing but carefully manicured parks on the outside that gave way to pure wilderness.

Maria needed something that felt like home, and the forests of Shuster Park was the best she was going to get.

* * *

The movement provided by the kitchen wasn't enough. He had taken out all the things he needed to bake for hours: cakes, cookies, muffins, pastries, whatever. He had begun to pre-heat the ovens, mix the ingredients, checked and double-checked the recipes, all while pacing around the kitchen with a mixing bowl cradled against his ribs.

He growled and dumped the ingredients for bread dough into his bowl and mixed furiously.

If only their latest problem could have been beaten like what he did to ingredients when he cooked. You add the right things in, you follow the instructions, things turn out just the way they should. No uncertainties, and you knew that if something went wrong, it was your fault. It was easy to place blame, and then you just dumped the mistake out and started over.

But you couldn't just dump people out and start over, or bundle up time and dump that into the trash and try again. And it wasn't easy to say exactly whose fault anything was in life, either.

Oh, sometimes it was easy- certainly his father was the only one to blame for his current condition. But who, exactly, was to blame for Brainy's condition?

Brin knew he'd been firm in his support of his teammate's right to stay, but he wasn't actually sure how he felt about the whole situation.

Some people blamed Brainy, like Kell had. Some people couldn't stand the thought that it was his fault, like Shrinking Violet.

But Brin had been a Legionnaire long enough to know that, deep down, the sort of people who became Legionnaires blamed themselves for any failure.

And it was easy for him to see how people could be blaming themselves. Saturn Girl, for not noticing that a teammate's mind was slipping when that was what she did. Shrinking Violet, for not noticing. Triplicate Girl and Chameleon Boy, also for not noticing. Maybe Invisible Kid, and even Shadow Lass, whom he'd heard had been good friends of Brainy's, for not being around.

And Cos, definitely, because he blamed himself for _everything_.

* * *

Maria touched down in a slightly cleared area of Shuster Park, just before the true wilderness began.

She walked into the trees, enjoying the resemblance to the woods around her home on Starhaven.

Suddenly a horrible wave of homesickness hit her and she sat down on a thick protruding root.

Her brothers and parents and old friends- she realized she didn't know if they had been on the planet when the crisis was happening. She didn't even know if Starhaven had been one of the planets digitized.

She sought for something to distract herself with and thought of the reactions her brothers likely would have had to the news.

Her oldest brother, Aidan, with the Havenite name of 'Greatfire', would stay calm, as he always did. He'd walk around to the other people nearby and reassure them, gathering anyone who wished to fight against the threat.

Iphron, the second-oldest brother, had been in religious training the last time Maria had heard from her family. He would be obliged to go the rounds with his older brother, offering spiritual condolence to go with his brother's physical reassurance.

Maria smiled as she imagined what her mother would say to Iphron, known locally as one of the most laid-back people anyone had ever met, almost to the point of apathy.

_"Greybird, you get out there with your brother and _help!_"_

It was something she had been used to hearing before she had left for the Legion.

* * *

Brin slammed the pan down on the counter.

He had started half-a-dozen baking projects besides the bread, the dough of which was currently rising in a deep pot.

Every single thing he'd tried besides that had turned out wrong.

He seized the pan and dumped the contents into the sink, turning the water on to wash away the worst of the inedible muck.

Footsteps creaked farther up the building, on the edge of his hearing. Checking the time, Brin found it was now past dawn.

He thought suddenly of his time on Raul, all the times he'd run through the thick woods as dawn broke, running just to do it.

There were woods nearby.

Brin abandoned the ingredients and supplies of his baking work and dropped out the first window he came to.

* * *

Dawnstar had risen from her tree root and was busy distracting herself by tracking a small animal.

She had found scat traces half an hour ago, just after dawn, and had noticed the slight traces of passage through the undergrowth.

This wasn't a time to use her powers. This was a time for manual tracking.

There was a slight bit of fur caught in the dense, whippy branches of a brushy tangle. Rather than risk her wings, Maria walked around it and picked up the trail on the other side.

A faint partial outline of a footprint there, a few disturbed, rotting leaves here…

* * *

Brin had gotten well into Shuster Park before he thought of the possibility of tracking Brainy.

He knew already that Dream Girl and Dawnstar had refused to do any such thing, citing promises made before the traumatized Legionnaire had left. But _he_ had no such obligations.

The traces should still be fresh enough, and he knew Brainy's scent well enough that even with the fading over time it wouldn't be hard to pick up any trail he had left behind. The city wasn't even a problem- a few years ago, when Brin joined the Legion, he wouldn't have been able to track anything through the city, not even a cruiser full of onions. But he'd had practice now, and could scent a teammate coming from a couple city blocks away, more if the wind was right.

It was something to think about.

The wind rustled the leaves of the trees and a warm, moist scent wafted into his nose. It made his mouth water before he truly managed to register it.

Sternly, Brin commanded himself to stop thinking about the joys of hunting, but his body wouldn't listen and his stomach growled in defiance, rebelling against the lack of breakfast.

There was no one else around. He could slip, if he really wanted, just this once…

* * *

Maria crouched behind a screen of branches at the edge of an overgrown clearing, watching the bobcat she'd been tracking stalk a squirrel. It stepped silently across the debris littering the floor of the clearing.

She carefully left the protective cover of her wild-growth screen and ghosted behind the bobcat, keeping close tabs on the wind to make sure her scent didn't reach the wild animal.

Suddenly the squirrel sprang upright. The bobcat froze as the squirrel did. The clearing was silent for a moment before the squirrel bolted, disturbing the silence with the skittering of displaced leaves as it leapt at the nearest tree trunk.

The bobcat kept its frozen position and Maria heard the carefully quiet noises of a larger something out in the woods. She had thought that there were no large predators in the woods of Shuster Park, but apparently she had been mistaken.

What species were native to this part of the planet, anyway? Bears? Mountain lions?

Would the city even tolerate such wild animals within its limits?

Quickly she appraised her means of escape. The tree canopy here was too dense for her to fly out safely; even if she used her flight ring instead of her wings her feathers would likely get caught and torn on something, becoming useless.

A great crash signaled the arrival of the predator in the clearing and Maria had a quick second to hope that she faced a poacher, or a licensed hunter. Something human, or close to it.

The bobcat snarled and ran for cover.

Timber Wolf shot past her, skidding on the damp, rotting remains of last year's leaf fall as he tried to stop.

She lunged forward and grabbed him, spreading her wings to steady them both before her teammate could plow into a tree.

"Is it bobcat-hunting season?" she asked as Timber Wolf righted himself.

"Is there even a season for hunting bobcats?" he replied.

There was a growl from his stomach.

"If you had caught that animal it could have been constituted as poaching," Maria told him. "You would have been prosecuted."

"I'm hungry," he growled. "And don't tell me to go back to HQ and eat. I can't stand it in there right now."

"I know how you feel."

She considered the situation for a moment.

"Do you drink coffee?"

Timber Wolf blinked at her. "Wha-no. Can't stand the smell. Or the taste."

"I prefer tea myself. Would you consider going out for breakfast?"

Her teammate scrunched in on himself. "I hate going out in public when I'm not in uniform. People stare."

"People stare at me, too. We are just too recognizable. But is it worth being stared at by some early morning breakfasters not to have to eat in Legion Headquarters?"

A fifteen-minute trek through the park and an equally long walk to an early-open café saw the two Legionnaires dining on breakfast foods in a mostly-unoccupied room where people were more interested in staying awake or planning an early-morning business meeting than paying attention to the novelty of Legionnaires.

* * *

Brin watched Maria over his drink and wondered if it was a good idea to ask her about what he was considering.

She noticed him watching her.

"Was there something you wished to say?"

"I was thinking a bit before I started chasing that thing," he admitted. "I thought that it would probably still be possible for me to track-"

He became very conscious of the other diners.

"-well, you know who. The trail isn't that old and I'm experienced enough with this city that it shouldn't be a problem. I just don't know if I should do it or not."

Maria put down her food and leaned back slightly in her chair, wings spread slightly to keep them from getting uncomfortable.

"I know that I will do no such thing because it would weigh on my conscious, trying to force a person down a path they might not have found themselves on otherwise."

"Ever have an issue with Dream Girl?"

She shrugged. "Not with her personally. I did ask, and she admitted that her powers work with the likeliest outcome of a situation. She said that she sees more things about people closest to her, since she knows them best. Things can be changed, you just must act entirely out of character, which is not easy for many. But that is not the point."

"That doesn't really give me an answer."

"Can you live with yourself if you do track him down? What will you do if you do find him?"

"Make sure he's okay," Brin replied. "I know he was really broken up when he left, and-"

He tapped his claws self-consciously on the sides of his glass.

"- I can empathize with that. Having your mind fail you, I mean."

"Would you make him come back?"

"We already decided we wouldn't try and make him, but if you mean convincing… I guess that would depend how I found him."

"What if he was in a bad way, but still did not want to come."

Brin was silent.

"These are the things you have to consider, when you have power- any sort of power. You have to use it in a way you can live with."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's- a different way to put it."

"Oh, were you expecting me to say 'in the right way'?" she asked mildly. "Or 'to help others'? Because that is the trap the heroes of old fell into, 'helping' people. They acted without thought to how those people they said they were helping thought of such actions."

"That's closer to what I'm used to hearing, is all."

"Your powers are your own. You act in ways that you can live with; is there any reason not to use your powers in the same way?"

Brin scowled at the table.

Maria stood and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Just think about it before you act, Brin. I believe I shall return to the park. Perhaps I shall sit and admire the flowers, or attempt to feed the squirrels or the pigeons."

He looked at her.

"Attempt?"

She smiled. "Despite what people may think, animals do not much like me. I would not mind being able to sit on a city bench and have the birds hop around me, or swim around near the shore, waiting for breadcrumbs, but whenever I attempt to come near animals they hiss, or growl, or shriek, and then run away."

* * *

Brin eventually returned to HQ and found that his kitchen had been cleaned by some kind soul, the utensils and pots and bowls and pans stacked and cleaned, the ingredients put away.

He found his now-risen bread dough and punched it into submission, thinking.

He covered the dough again, to let it rise at least once more.

As it rose, he sat in the kitchen, door locked, and thought more, keeping Maria's words in mind.

Finally the dough was done for a second time, and he squashed it again, still not finished considering the situation.

Brin found the need to move again. He felt a decision coming on, but it was hiding in the back of his mind. He tried to his problem out of his mind and pulled out everything he'd need for cake and icing.

The cake was in the oven by the time the bread was ready to be baked, and once that was in the oven as well he set to work on the frosting for his impending cake.

The frosting was left to chill in the refrigerator and the oven timer beeped. He took out the cake and the bread, dislodging both from their pans. The bread went onto a wood chopping block and the cake went on a cooling rack.

As he cut the bread for easier storage Brin found his thoughts wandering back to his problem.

The answer hit him before he finished cutting the bread, but he forced himself to finish and package up the thick slices for later before he really considered it.

Then he took the frosting out of the refrigerator and let it soften while he sat back and turned his decision over in his mind.

_I will not track Brainy._

Then Brin stood, took out a platter and a spreading knife, and made a cake in memory of happier times.


	15. Colossal Boy

**Colossal Boy**

* * *

_I apologize deeply and wholeheartedly for any mistakes made when describing the Jewish synagogue._

* * *

Gim woke up that day and said a prayer.

The sun was coming in through his window, at angle that told him he'd slept in past early morning, when he was used to waking up.

He checked the time -it was mid-morning now, almost nine o'clock- and saw that he had a message.

Hoping it wasn't a wake-up call, he played it.

_Attention, Legionnaires. _

Cos's voice sounded slightly off in the recording.

_This is an off-duty day. Enjoy yourselves._

He wondered how, exactly, he was supposed to 'enjoy himself' when he was still trying to figure out what had even happened.

* * *

Later, Gim was walking out of the kitchen after grabbing some food for a late breakfast when he caught sight of the hallway leading to the exit.

He was heading for the front door before he'd even thought about it.

* * *

Taking it as a sign, he wandered around New Metropolis's Old City, where the historical sites were upkept in the exact same quality they had been when they were first constructed.

It was almost like time-traveling, except that you could still faintly hear the vehicles overhead and the buildings of the rest of the city towered over even the old Daily Planet building, once the tallest structure in the city and now the refurbished headquarters of the Daily Galaxy. Now its only claim to fame was as the oldest building in the urban sprawl.

And, of course, the Old City probably didn't look anything like what the time-traveling Legionnaires had seen on their trips to get Superman-

Superman. Time-travel. Imperiex. Brainiac 5.

Gim swore silently in his head. He'd managed to forget for a little bit why he had been focusing so much on the buildings.

He had a horribly uncomfortable feeling that he was supposed to be _dead_.

* * *

In his Legion career, he had almost died more than a few times. But it hadn't been like this before- he had always stayed in his body. He had never- _discorporated_ before, just been in serious bodily danger.

And then there was that disturbing presence of the bright light, rushing up at him as he started to feel himself falling apart. That was what happened when you died, wasn't it? Bright white light?

Gim kicked at a dislodged pebble of asphalt. It bounced and skidded to a point a few feet in front of him. Another step, another kick.

It was like that all the way down the block until he came to a four-way intersection. There was a guidance plaque mounted on the wall of the building on the opposite side of the now-disused street that he noticed idly once he had crossed.

A word jumped out at him- _synagogue_.

He backed up a step and looked down the street he had just crossed. There was a slightly-familiar gothic outline further down. A sign overhanging the sidewalk bore a Star of David.

Quickly, Gim started walking.

* * *

The interior of the synagogue consisted mainly of a high vaulted ceiling over the wood floor of the prayer hall, lined with pews. There were large windows set into the spaces between the valts on the walls. A semi-circular enclave at the front held the tevah and the ark for the Torah. The whole building was empty.

He took a seat in one of the pews and rested his forearms on his knees, head bowed.

Suddenly, Gim couldn't think of anything to say.

He just sat there, mind blank, for a timeless period. No one else entered the prayer hall, and no sound disturbed the silence inside. The thick, old-style walls blocked whatever lingering noise from the modern city that might penetrate this far into the Old City.

Finally, there were footsteps.

It took a second for the sound to register in his mind. When he finally managed to look up there was a woman standing in the aisle by the end of the pew. Her brown hair was cropped short, and she was looking towards the tevah.

Quickly, she crossed herself across the chest. She looked over at him, hand still hovering in the space where she had ended the gesture.

"What?" she asked him. "I didn't know what else to do. And it doesn't feel right to enter a place of worship and not do _something._"

Gim leaned back and placed his arms on the back of the pews. He smiled slightly, looking at the woman.

"What are you doing here, Gigi?"

The Science Police Officer he'd known from his days before the Legion shrugged a little and collapsed on the pew next to him.

"Some pretty bad stuff has happened this past week, and I figured I'd try to come and find you and see how you were doing. I asked nicely and Chief Norg let me have the afternoon off. You ever notice how much quieter things get after a big crime?"

"Yeah," he replied, nodding. "All the time. The first week or so after a big event is the only time we get off. The rest of the time we're busy, morning to night. And a lot of times past that."

Gigi snorted. "You Legionnaires take too much on yourselves. We police aren't incompetent, you know. We _can_ do our jobs."

"I know. It's just hard to sit around when there are _things_ to be done."

She shook her head. "Driven, the lot of you."

Standing, she clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, you big lug. It's lunchtime. And _don't_ you try and tell me that you're not hungry."

Gim smiled and stood, following her out.

* * *

Gigi bought him a simple lunch from a roadside vendor. They sat together on a bench that overlooked a small park square in the middle of New Metropolis's shopping district.

"So," she said, munching on her food. "What exactly where you doing in that church?"

"Synagogue," he corrected. "I- it sounds a little stupid, but I'm not really sure. I just saw it when I was walking around and went right in. But then I got there and couldn't think of anything to pray about."

"You just went through a galactic crisis. Actually, you've been through a few. You've _got_ to have things to pray about."

Gim chewed his food quietly. "It's not that easy, sometimes. You just get there, fight the fight, clean up a bit and leave. Even if it was bad, usually you just keep going. Maybe you spend a little time thinking about it, going back, but usually not much time more than that."

"Sounds like what they tell you at the Cadet Academy," Gigi said. "You see a tragedy, you don't dwell on it. You just keep going."

"It's a bit like that," he admitted. "But it's different this time."

It was quiet in their little corner of the city for a moment before anyone spoke.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Gigi asked awkwardly.

Gim shook his head. "It's something you had to be there for."

Gigi relaxed a little. "Yeah, that's what the Senior Officers say they have to tell their spouses. And their psychologists, sometimes."

Gim smiled at memory. "So they come back to work and talk about it amongst themselves. We do that at HQ, too."

He balled up the wrapper for his now-eaten lunch and tossed it into a wastebin not to far away. It bounced off the rim and went in.

Gigi threw hers. It fell straight through the center.

"Let's keep walking," she said.

* * *

It was darker, closer to twilight, when Gim and Gigi were passing by the Metropolis Universities.

"The Police Director from Mars called up the Commissioner earlier this week," Gigi told Gim, continuing the conversation they'd been having for the past mile or so. "She wants a few good local officers to come over on loan for a bit so she can evaluate them for a position. The Commissioner told Chief Norg to pick a few people. So a few days ago he calls me up to his office and tells me _I'm_ one of the people in the running. So if everything goes well, I'll be off to Mars."

"That sounds fun," Gim told her. "I remember Cadet Training there."

Gigi laughed a little. "Who could ever forget?"

She took a double-take at something she saw at the edge of the sidewalk and grabbed his arm.

"You still like theater and movies and stuff?" she asked.

"Yeah," he told her, slightly confused.

"Come on," she said, pulling him onto the grassy stretch of lawn that was part of the Universities' grounds. "There's a new play out that everyone's been talking about up at Central. There's going to be a showing in ten minutes."

* * *

Gim clapped enthusiastically as the actors came out on stage for their encore. It had been an exceptionally good play. The lead actress was simply stunning, and there were a more than a few people giving her a standing ovation. The lead actor led her up to the front of the stage and presented her to the audience. The applause intensified, and the woman bowed deeply.

Finally the curtains closed for the last time and the lights faded back on.

Gigi looked over at her friend and smiled teasingly.

"You want to see if you can go backstage?"

Gim shook himself momentarily and looked at her.

"You think I could?"

She chuckled quietly.

"Let's go see what we can do."

* * *

Gim knocked once on the dressing room door and opened it just in time to see the lead actress's features dissolve.

She turned her head towards him and he took a step back.

"I'm _really_ sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on you like that."

The female Durlan who now stood in the place of the human-looking actress of the play put her hands on her hips.

"I- I just wanted to come and say that I think you were absolutely wonderful tonight," he stammered nervously.

She looked sharply at him.

"Do I _know_ you?" she asked.

"Ah- not personally. I'm Gim Allon."

The actress brightened up a bit. "Oh, Colossal Boy. I was wondering about that."

"About what?"

She pulled off the gloves that were the last remains of her costume, the only bit that she hadn't generated herself as part of her 'disguise'.

"Every other man that the director has let back here to come see me has either come after I've shifted back and been _amazingly_ rude or walked in like you did and screamed."

"Oh," Gim said. "Well- I guess I'm more… used to it than those other guys."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry about those other guys, by the way."

She laughed. "You don't have to do that. And I think that the director must have recognized you to let you in back here. I told him after the last showing that I didn't want anyone else coming back here."

"If I'd known I wouldn't have asked," Gim told her.

"It's perfectly okay," she said, switching the lights over her dressing table off and picking up her purse. "You're the first person I've met off-campus since I got to this planet that hasn't looked at me oddly."

The Legionnaire thought of some of the reactions Chameleon Boy had gotten.

"And I bet there were a few people who did more than just look."

She snorted. "Oh, you bet."

Something occurred to Gim. "I uh- probably I should have asked when I got the directions to here, since the program didn't say, but-"

She held her hand out. "Yera Trairith."

He smiled, relieved, and took her hand. "Gim Allon- Colossal Boy."

This greeting emboldened him to a level he hadn't felt before.

"Would you like to go out to dinner?" he asked before he had really thought about it.

Yera smiled widely and hooked her arm around his, looking at him coyly.

"I'd _love_ to."


	16. Star Boy

**Star Boy**

* * *

Thom had started the day on time, which slightly surprised him.

He'd been sure the night before that he would sleep in late, but apparently habit was a stronger force than sleep deprivation.

Feeling oddly floaty, he walked through the halls of Legion HQ for what seemed to be an endless period of time.

Eventually he saw the sun in the sky outside a window, halfway to noon.

He wasn't hungry, despite skipping breakfast.

He didn't feel particularly attached to the world, either. It all seemed so unreal.

Thom looked up at the sky and saw the faint outline of the daytime moon.

There was always somewhere to go.

* * *

Thom left the Earth's atmosphere and flew past Nullport, where intergalactic traffic docked to let off their passengers to the Earth shuttles.

Far off to the sides, he could see tiny shapes of the LR4 and LR5 orbiting stations, stationary in their points of gravitational equilibrium. Ahead of him he could see the lit up wheel-shape of the LR1 station, twirling slowly to create semblance of gravity.

He angled off his approach to fly around LR1 and found himself staring into the covered lunar science establishment of Asprospoli.

That wasn't what he wanted. He flew past the moon town and off into the darkness-shrouded night side of the rocky satellite.

Careful he touched down and stared off at the stars that eternally peppered the sky here; engaging in his own personalized version of time-travel, seeing the distant lights as they had been centuries ago.

He smiled ironically to himself. Centuries were nothing, to the Legion.

He sat down carefully on the fine gray surface beneath his feet, still staring up at the stars.

Did other people see what he saw, when they looked up at the night sky? Did they feel the same way he did, peaceful and happy, at the same time yearning to find out the stories behind those bright lights, so far away?

Thom had never been able to find out. Poetry, which he thought might have been helpful, surprisingly wasn't. There was the variety that talked wonderingly of the vastness of space, or romantically of a kiss under the stars, or of the soul-crushing despair that came from realizing one was entirely insignificant to the larger workings of the universe.

He'd never gone for the last type, perhaps because he had a hard time theorizing about something as large as the universe.

Anyway, who said that a person was insignificant? It had only taken one man to spread a religion, one Legionnaire to save the galaxy, one friend to save another.

There was plenty one person could do, even if it wasn't amazingly significant. It would only take one person to open a door, or give a gift, or catch someone before they fell.

That was the fun thing about history- history often seemed to rely on one person, but really it relied on a whole bunch of people, each of them only doing one thing that led to someone else doing something, and then another person taking action on that, and then another-

But that was the sort of stuff that didn't get recorded in history books. No one seemed to care what everyone else did, only what the last person in line decided on was what got recorded.

He wondered how people would think of the recent events, in times to come. Would they remember that Imra had been the one to put the Supermen's minds into Brainiac's, or would it just be written that 'the Supermen saved the day'? Would anyone even remember Kell existed, or would he be forgotten, overshadowed by his much more famous genetic donor? For that matter, would anyone even remember that those days had happened, or would something the Legion did outshine it, for good or bad?

Would anyone even remember the Legion?

Thom let himself flop back onto the ground, hands behind his head.

Surely someone somewhere would remember. But he had had enough experience studying history to know that sometimes important things didn't get remembered.

How many people could he find, if he stood on a street corner in New Metropolis, that could name Superman's Kryptonian name? How many could give the names of his Earth parents, who gave him his morals; or his cousin, who had apparently saved him from certain death at least once? Who would be able to name the events that led up to Earth joining the galaxy at large, or the name of the person who had brought it all about?

Whereas, he was certain that people would be able to tell him any number of things about the most recent music tour, or the stats for the latest sports tournament, or the name of the first President of the UP.

* * *

He sighed to himself and looked at the stars.

There was Cassiopeia, and Ursa Major, and the Southern Cross. His eyes followed the path of the Dragon, snaking across the sky, and then found the Hunter, followed by his Dogs.

Glowing faintly, almost directly above him, was the star he knew very well. Xanthu was in that system, entirely too small to see.

His parents were there, probably watching the stars just as he was from the Xanthuan Stellar Observatory, maybe calculating the best routes for starships based on the slight gravitational changes that occurred as planets changed position and asteroids were knocked about, perhaps even having to account for the rare passage of a comet.

Though, really, at this point it was more likely that they were at home, recovering from the shock of the past week or so. When he got back to HQ he might have a message.

* * *

Eventually, his thoughts wandered away from the stars and back closer to what was nowadays home. What was Nura doing?

He knew that she had taken her keep-awake pills earlier. He had hoped that she would be awake and that he could take her out, maybe have cake or something, go walking in the park to take their minds off things- more specifically, her mind. Thom was well over worrying about what had happened. It was done with now, and the Legion could take whatever consequences arose as they happened.

But he hadn't seen her up and about, and vaguely recalled seeing her door shut tight. He knew that if she knew that he had been coming by she would have kept it open, perhaps even come out herself, knowing that she knew he knew she know what was going on.

So she must have taken a second dose, or else she was feeling too horrible to do anything.

Thom resolved to get her chocolate, and perhaps some flowers. He could stop in at Asprospoli and get some of the amazingly light, airy chocolates that seemed possible only when made in low-gravity conditions. And he could get some moonlilies, the type that had blossoms so large and fragile that attempting to grow or keep them anywhere else resulted in broken stems and torn petals.

But his power was over gravity. It would be simple to make them keep down in the higher pull of Earth.

Well, there was no reason to wait around.

* * *

It was edging towards sunset when Thom returned to Earth. He touched down in Shuster Park, just behind some trees, to avoid whatever unpleasant feelings the local people might be harboring towards the Legion. He left the trees and found himself in Siegel Square, the Superman Museum looming over him.

_Well, there's a place to be today, after all that's happened._

He shook his head after that thought and turned down the avenue. On most days he'd have to push his way through the crowds, but not today. Today, he could walk unhindered, not having to worry about anyone bumping into him and damaging the flowers he carried.

Even Heroes' Square, halfway between the Superman Museum and Legion Headquarters, was deserted.

Thom had to stop there and take in the sight. It was a sign of the times, surely, that no one was around.

Carefully, he set the flowers and chocolates down on a bench put there for public use and walked the circuit of the statues, studying the figures of old heroes arranged there.

He could give names to all of them- Clark Kent, Jay Garrick, Princess Diana, Allan Scott, Bruce Wayne, Dinah Lace, John Jones, Kendra Saunders.

Truth, Honor, Peace, Courage, Justice, Strength, Wisdom, Duty- just as the inscriptions of the statues' plinths said. Truly, there were many lessons to be learned from history here. The Legion carried the memory of these heroes and more around with them at all times.

A thought struck him. It wasn't always a good thing, being compared to the heroes of old, having to live with the collective memory of them. Bringing Superman to the future probably hadn't helped much, and certainly having Kell around hadn't.

But how much worse would it be to carry around the memory of a villain instead of a hero, and have a whole planet that would most likely be unable to forget?

History had done no favors for the Legion; for all that he liked it so much. It had been especially unkind to Brainiac 5.

He stopped in front of the statue of Superman and stood for a moment, thinking.

Then he turned and walked back towards the bench, retrieving his flowers and chocolate. He fished a coin out of his pocket and threw it into the reflecting pool that sat in the middle of the square.

_Thanks for all your help in getting us where we are today_, he thought at the statues. _Even if it's not always the best. But I think the Legion –_all_ of the Legion- is done with history now, and good riddance._

* * *

Thom walked home, to where the future was hopefully waiting for him.


	17. One Week Later

**One Week Later**

Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin was sitting in the break room of New Metropolis's Police Department Headquarters when a bellowing roar came from Chief Norg's office.

_"OFFICER ERIN!"_

She winced and put down her mug of hot chocolate. A few of her fellow officers called out to her as she walked over to the stairs leading up to his office.

"Hey, what'cha been doing lately, Erin?"

"Don't worry, you're probably getting promoted!"

"Hang in there, kid, you know he always sounds angrier than he really is!"

She plodded up the stairs to her boss's office, wondering what she had done that warranted such a call.

* * *

"You wanted to see me, sir?" she asked, standing to attention.

He looked up from scowling at some official-looking missive to look angrily at her.

"Have you been paying attention to the news lately, Officer?"

"Yes, sir. I always do, sir."

"Then you heard about the Legion?"

_Oh, that's why he's angry,_ Shvaughn thought distantly. _The Legion always makes him angry._

"Couldn't hardly miss them, sir."

"Then you heard about the court ruling?"

"Innocent of all potential charges, Legion to retain all legal powers, Science Police to provide on liaison officer, _sir!_" she said smartly, before realizing _why _she was in here.

Chief Norg studied her face, noting when she realized what he wanted her for.

"It's no secret I can't stand the Legion, Officer Erin, but the United Planets Senatorial Court itself sent me this charge, and by everything holy I'm not going to pass the job off to some incompetent newbie because of personal opinion! I'm going to do a _proper_ job of it! That's why I'm sending you."

He referenced another memo.

"It says here a Legionnaire will meet you in Heroes' Square at ten o'clock today, Officer Erin. Go clean out your locker, say your goodbyes, and for God's sake make _sure _you're on _time!_ You're going to represent the Science Police of the galaxy to- to _them,_ so you'd _better_ make us _proud!_"

Shvaughn turned and plodded out.

* * *

"Hey, Erin, why the long face?" someone called when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Didn't get your promotion?" another joked.

"Chief Norg has selected me to be the liaison officer to the Legion," she announced. What was she getting into?

The room was silent.

"_That's_ why he sounded so angry," someone said quietly, audible in the noiseless room.

The room stirred again.

"Best of luck to you, Erin."

"Don't worry, if it gets too bad you can always come back here!"

"Drop by any time! You know where to find us, on-duty or off!"

* * *

Shvaughn was reluctantly cleaning out her locker and when someone cleared their throat behind her.

She shouldered her bag and turned.

"Quav, you are _definitely not_ a woman," she told him. "You are _not _supposed to be in here."

He shrugged. "Oh well. Anyway, I wanted to catch you before you left."

"I don't even know you that well," Shvaughn said as they walked out, headed for the front doors. "Why would you want to talk to me?"

"You're going to the Legion."

She recalled that he had been in the same Cadet Class on Mars that Colossal Boy had been in.

"Officer Cusimano put you up to this, didn't she?" Shvaughn asked suspiciously.

"Of course."

"You two are biased; you do know that, right?"

"Absolutely, totally, and completely," he admitted cheerfully, opening the door for her. "Seriously, though, if it does get too bad with the Legion, go talk to Gim- Colossal Boy. He's- well, he _would _be a real SciPol if he hadn't gotten mixed up with the superheroes. But I don't think it'll be that bad. I know Gim. If the Legion were bad people, he wouldn't've stuck around this long."

* * *

Shvaughn sat on a bench on the edge of Heroes' Square and frowned at the statues ringing the plaza.

_This is all partially _your_ fault,_ she thought, as if the statues could respond. _The Legion had better not be as bad as history says you were sometimes, or I'll hand in my license. _

What was she supposed to do as Liaison Officer, anyway? What was her job? Was she supposed to advise the Legion, or be a sort of government inspector, or tell them what to do?

And if she did, what were the odds that anyone would listen to her? The Legion and the Science Police had a bad tendency of not getting along. She herself had at times said less-than-complementary things about these people she was now supposed to be working with.

"Officer Erin?" someone asked.

She turned and looked at the man who had come up while she wasn't paying attention. He had wavy blonde hair, cut fetchingly at his shoulders, and kind blue eyes. He wasn't wearing a uniform, though, just civilian clothes with a cut she wasn't used to seeing.

"Yes?"

The man smiled at her. "I'm Jan Arrah- Element Lad. I'm here to escort you."

Shvaughn stood, determined to stay polite and professional, no matter _how_ he or his teammates acted.

* * *

Presently, she found herself looking up at the tower that was Legion Headquarters.

Jan had his head slightly to one side, as if he was listening to something far away.

"Saturn Girl –she's just been elected the new Legion Leader, by the way- is going to meet us inside and help give you the tour," he told her. "Dream Girl is her deputy, but I don't know if she's going to show up."

Shvaughn just nodded, mute.

Jan smiled at her again and opened the door.

Saturn Girl was waiting inside, standing in a way that any police officer or military person would recognize as someone who was used to –or had been used to- standing at attention for periods of time.

The Legionnaire seemed to notice her appraisal, because she smiled at the officer.

"I was a police cadet, too, before I was a Legionnaire," she said. "And before that I was at a school where discipline was _very_ important."

Shvaughn took her offered hand and shook it, a little surprised. She hadn't known about Saturn Girl's history with the Science Police.

"Come on," Saturn Girl said. "Jan and I will get you used to the building."

* * *

"This is the general area," Saturn Girl said after leading her up the stairs. "A bit like the living room. That big column-like thing in the middle is the main computer terminal, and those doors take you into the kitchen and the dining room."

Shvaughn looked around the room. No one seemed to be using it at the moment.

"Timber Wolf is probably in the kitchen," Saturn Girl went on. "He likes to bake, so he spends a lot of time in there. Sometimes you can find Phantom Girl in there with him, but not always."

She and Jan led Shvaughn up another flight of stairs to a large set of doors. Saturn Girl input something on the keypad and they opened with a hydraulic-sounding _swoosh_.

"This is the lab," she said. "Mostly not a lot of people come in here, because there's only three-"

She stopped abruptly, looking sad. A bit of pain flashed through her expression for an instant.

Jan picked up where his leader had left off. "Only two people on the team who know what any of these things are for."

He led her around a hulking something to an open area.

The two Legionnaires looked up from the giant canvas unrolled on the floor, which looked to be all technical diagrams.

"Officer Erin, these are Shrinking Violet and Invisible Kid. They're our tech crew, research and development team, and science department. You'll probably see them a lot- they sort through all our intell and provide information files on anything we could possibly need when going on a mission."

Invisible Kid waved at her and stood, stretching.

"So, my dad finally got around to sending somebody over, huh?"

"He put a lot of thought into it," she told him, keeping her face blank.

"Yeah, I bet he did. Say what you will about him, but doing things right was never something he shirked. Don't listen to Jan, by the way. I'm Lyle, you can just call her Violet."

"Shut up and get back to work, Norg."

Lyle smiled widely. "She's a sweet little flower, isn't she?"

"What makes you think you get to talk to me like that?" she snapped. "Save that sort of stuff for your boyfriend!"

"Boyfriend?" she asked, as Jan led her out.

He nodded. "Chemical King- Condo. He's shy, so you probably won't see him much."

* * *

"This is our gym," Jan told her, leading her through the open door. "It's a pretty good place to look, if you're searching for some people-"

He looked around the room.

"See- there's Ultra Boy, Shadow Lass, Nemesis Kid, Sun Boy, and Karate Kid."

"You missed somebody, Jan. Is that our Liaison Officer I see?"

The Legionnaire looked off to the side. "Oh, hello, Gim. This is Officer Erin."

Colossal Boy stood up and came over.

"Hey," he said, taking Shvaughn's hand. "How's NMPD doing lately?"

"Just fine."

"I'll be fine if she stays away from me!" Ultra Boy called.

"You can shut up, Jo!" Gim yelled back. He looked at Shvaughn apologetically. "You can ignore him, he's Rimborian. I think he might have a moral objection to police officers."

"Who, me? Nah, I like SciPols just fine. Best respect to you all. Just don't mess in my business."

Gim sighed.

Karate Kid had come over, and bowed slightly to her.

"Hello, Officer," he said politely. "I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise."

Jo snorted. "I bet!"

Jan took her out quickly.

"I'm sorry for that," he said. "Not everyone is happy about the current state of events."

"I'm not particularly happy about it, either," Shvaughn told him.

He smiled at her a little bit. "We'll all have to get used to it. But I'm sure we'll get along."

* * *

She and Jan were reaching to top of the tower now, and Shvaughn saw Saturn Girl standing in the hallway.

"I was wondering where she went," she said quietly to him.

"Probably she was needed," he told her. "Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad are cleaning out their offices, and they don't always get along."

As if conjured by mention of their names, the two men in question appeared, carrying boxes.

Cosmic Boy caught sight of her first, and rearranged the box in his arms to shake her hand awkwardly.

"You must be the Liaison Officer," he said. "Good to meet you."

She just nodded once.

"What, someone steal your tongue?" Lighting Lad asked snidely.

"Be nice!" Saturn Girl called.

Cosmic Boy gave him a Look. "You keep yours," he ordered.

"Hey, you're not Legion Leader anymore."

_:But _I_ am and _I_ agree with him. Be nice or stop talking, Garth; she's just arrived.:_

Jan noticed Shvaughn's startled expression.

"You get used to it, after a while. And you don't need to worry about her poking around in your head- it may be nearly impossible for her to not hear what people are thinking, but she won't actually look unless she's invited."

"Just wait until she meets Dream Girl," Lightning Lad said. "_Then_ she'll get a shock."

* * *

Jan and Shvaughn were walking down a quiet hallway. He stopped in front of a closed door.

"This will be your room."

"My _room?_"

He nodded. "Everyone gets quarters here- there's no reason you shouldn't get one, either."

"But I have an apartment-"

"But you won't be able to get down to the cruiser in under three minutes," he pointed out. "You wouldn't be on hand whenever you were needed."

Shvaughn could see the sense in that, but she wasn't sure she was happy about living in Legion Headquarters just yet.

Jan pointed to the keypad. "There's a general code that everyone uses to open the doors to the quarters, but there's a spot in the memory for you to program your own, for when you don't want anyone else coming in. You just change the settings."

He let her open the door and she walked in.

* * *

Shvaughn sat on her bed, regarding the bare walls. They were painted a pale neutral color that managed _not_ to look horrible, a sort of creamy-white. The room itself didn't have much furniture- a desk with a chair, a small table with two chairs, a bookshelf, a padded chair –why did they need so many chairs?- a nightstand, a trunk at the foot of the bed she was sitting on. One door in the wall led to a bathroom, the other to a closet.

She had dropped her bag on the bed, and now reached over and dumped it out. She hadn't had much in her locker, just a change of civilian clothes, a spare uniform, a few toiletry items, a few assorted technological devices. She'd have to muster up the energy to go around to her apartment and pick up her things.

She sighed to herself and swung her legs up onto the bed, falling back onto the pillows.

She had expected things to be worse- but so far only two Legionnaires had been rude to her, and they were ones who had a History with the Science Police. And Invisible Kid, who had the most History of anyone, had been one of the nicest people she'd met.

How did _that_ work?

But she was stuck here, helping the Legion. She may not like it, but she was determined to do her best.

No, not determined- she would, because she owed it to herself to do her best, and she owed it to the people she would serve with the Legion to do her best.

Nothing was going to stop her.


End file.
